Selahattin Gökoğlan - Turkish Painting Association

Who is Selahattin Gökoğlan? (1951-Manisa)

He was born in 1951 in Kula district of Manisa. He graduated from Gazi Education Institute, Department of Painting and Graphics in 1974. During his academic education, Selahattin Gökoğlan won the Şeref Akdik merit scholarship. After working as a painting teacher in various secondary schools, he retired from Antalya ATSO Anatolian Fine Arts High School in 2001. He continues his artistic work in his studio in Bozova village, Korkuteli district of Antalya. His works are included in private collections and the Austrian Peace Museum collection. The artist, who has held solo exhibitions in many cities of Türkiye, has presented his works to art lovers at art fairs, festivals and group exhibitions. Selahattin Gökoğlan addresses the contradictory nature of life, the relationship between nature and humanity, and the phenomenon of existence in his works, which are based on figurative expression. Roots, social memory, transformation and the life cycle are prominent themes in the artist’s work. The artist, creating a dreamlike, mystical, and dialectical narrative through deformed figures, invites the viewer to contemplate the unseen layers of life.

Art Philosophy:
Roots, which we perceive as static, keep visible life alive and standing with their powerful energy. With their spiritual and mysterious energies, they experience dialectical movements with their unobservable structures; the process continues with a dialectical-metaphysical relationship.

My works do not touch upon abstract application in figurative deformation. The figure-abstract dichotomy is always in conflict on the surface. You see the chaotic, contradictory reality of deformed life in my sculptures, clearly and simply. I try to visualize the dreamlike, mystical, and dialectical with universal values. Although I use “I” in between, the repetition of the word “we” is generally felt.

By the nature of the root and life, movement is from bottom to top. The depth of the roots does not turn the direction of the line downwards. The story, the theme, the struggle of roots with the stones and rocks beneath the earth, the arabesque formation—it’s a musical exhilaration that stops the flow of time, told through your fingers. It’s the moment you remain in the position of a spectator. The speed of the transitions from the imaginary to the real, to the concrete, spirals out of control, surpassing the rhythm of life. Concrete values and forms produce abstract concepts and dreams.

The questioning of the reality of our existence—our roots (both plant and social)—through our free will, the conflict and rhythmic cycle of darkness and light, transitions into a fictional existence. When a child describes their drawing, only their emotional realm can be accessed; we cannot perceive their philosophical dimension. If you haven't been able to fit yourself into an object you think you've created by embellishing, polishing, and improvising a twig, it's meaningless for presentation, an object not needed for consumption or evaluation. Intuitive improvisation, form-dependent thinking, and subjective decision-making are merely collections of figures that don't drift aimlessly in emptiness, but carry elements of balance within themselves. The aim is to speak directly to the mind and subconscious, avoiding formal complexity and ambiguity, without beating around the bush. The rest is up to the interpretive power of the viewer's memory. If there has been a return, the words have been used appropriately. Nourished from the beginning, from its roots and veins, the accumulated energy strengthens and rises to infinity in its branches, falling to the earth in the endless cycle of contradictions, and must nourish its sources and veins anew. The dialectic of the struggle that begins in the earth must experience its contradiction within the cycle of metaphysical tranquility in infinity. In the intricate weave of life, contradictions exist in every area of life. Concrete formation, concrete values, reach a special spiritual and inner phenomenon in the individual. This objective perspective, when translated into concepts and words, contradicts the abstract perception of the mixture. Roots are the main artery of social life. Stem cells, thought, knowledge, ethnic structure, words, etc... Their fundamental task is to keep life alive and continuous. I presented the dimensions and transitions between surfaces, the concrete hierarchical structure, and the psychological perception within a tangle of contradictions, in its reality, without translating it into concepts or words. This was done to create a space for individual value judgments and interpretations.