The opening of the “Contact / At the Desk” Exhibition, organized under the leadership of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Faculty of Fine Arts Deputy Dean Yasemin Nur, took place on Thursday, June 1 at the Osman Hamdi Bey Hall. After the opening speech of Prof. Dr. Handan İnci Elçi, Rector of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, a certificate of appreciation was given to the participants whose works were included in the exhibition.

The Contact Exhibitions meet with the audience every year on March 2 as part of the anniversary events of MSGSU. The exhibition aims to invite artists who were students at the Faculty of Fine Arts and who were in contact with each other to the school, and to create a memory and a sharing space between generations. The 5th of the Contact exhibitions, held in 2023 under the guest curation of Asst. Prof. Derya Ülker, a faculty member of the Department of Basic Education, has an interdisciplinary quality with the productions of artists who have come together in the undergraduate or graduate programs of the department and graduated from different fields. Many of these artists, who think, work, produce and come together to describe a common life at the desk, also work as art educators.

The works of twelve artists were exhibited in the exhibition, which spread to different points of Osman Hamdi Bey's hall. Ceren İren and Dilara Mataracı, research assistants at Istanbul Gelişim University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Graphic Design Department were among the participants as art proficiency students at the Department of Basic Art Education. Ceren İren participated in the exhibition with her installation titled “I Open at Closing”, which consists of woodcut prints depicting about 350 stag beetles, and Dilara Mataracı with her series “I Hide When I Look Like”, in which she depicts humorous copies of important works of art from the history of art.

As Istanbul Gelişim University, Faculty of Fine Arts, we would like to thank our Graphic Design Department research assistants Ceren İren and Dilara Mataracı for their efforts and contributions and wish them continued success.