Evren Sungur
Evren Sungur is a Turkish artist who received painting training in a private studio alongside studying Architecture at Yeditepe University and Sculpture at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Evren bases his work on figurative painting, constructing a unique, contemporary, and critical style. The conceptual framework of his paintings centres on the contradictions between human nature and ideals. These contradictions manifest in his figures through strong deformations/reformations, reflecting the distortions in human existence. His subjects are drawn from contemporary events and the competitive environments they encompass.
Artist Q & A:
What inspires you to explore the contradictions between human nature and ideals in your work?
As any other artist, I paint about myself. I paint about the contradictions between human nature and ideals because I felt them as a motivation to paint since my beginning years. Those feelings dominated my life, my relations with people, and my opinions about political or historical incidents, even between artists famous for their idealist approach to their works.
Your paintings feature strong deformations and reformations. How do these visual choices reflect the distortions in human existence?
Deformations are about us (humanity) not being as perfect as we assume. On the other hand, reformation is my approach to humanity: changing our imperfect beings to perfect and accepting what we are. In my works, I paint everything (every figure, every portrait, every object, every landscape, etc) ideally in my style. There is no room for any negligence. The only imperfect matter is how they are reshaped according to the theme and coloured with an imaginary vision. In the “Influencer” series, figures have huge, exaggerated hands because they reflect their high self-confidence without an adequately built background. Sometimes, they have two heads, one male and one female, because they have to get into many characters.Their bodies are enormous enough to fill the canvas and leave no other space because they need the viewer’s attention.
How do you hope viewers connect with your work and reflect on their own experiences when engaging with your paintings?
For me, painting has always been a “struggle for existence” on the surface rather than simply creating oil paintings on canvas. This naturally emerges in the stories I depict. Working on themes inspired by global news makes my paintings about everyone. As soon as people learn about where the themes come from, they suddenly understand everything about it or about what I’m trying to express. But the more they dig into it, the more they see their own struggle.
Follow the artist along: www.evrensungur.com
Evren is featured inside the Spring 2025 Edition of the Art Seen.