Nihal Kececi

Nihal Kececi projects us into attractive and mysterious atmospheres, in which we cannot attain a clear glimpse, and feel more than what we actually see. It’s like taking a plunge into some other reality, some other era, where we can intuit and feel almost all kinds of things. The smoky and nebulous atmosphere makes the scene unintelligible, accentuating its enigmatic trait. Just like a distant landscape that comes from an indefinable corner of our memory. The light portrays itself as magical and sublime, subtly unfolding successive tones. Embroidered and attractive colours, with great mastery of their own value, cause a contrast that summons and captures our attention.

Kececi’s canvas seems to have been subject to erosion, as if time passed it by and provided a maturity and an ancestral authority; it’s as if it has a rusty and grungy effect, elements that accentuate further more the overall beauty and seduction. Its organic component is quite strong, underlined by earth tones, ochres, wood and rust. Not to mention the impastos, which immensely accentuate its attractive nature.

Her impressionistic style possesses an enormous abstractionist component; she plays with the delimitations of forms and objects, embarking on an adventure of light and colour, where, by magic, the volumes seem to turn themselves into a blur. Volumes that get mashed with different planes, with their own perspective, losing their relative position as they move in space and modify their appearance, as if the painting was always in motion or was subject to change, depending on our point-of-view.

When it comes to the human figure, Kececi goes beyond a mere portrait. She studies its behaviour, what is important, and captures its vital energy (Chi ?), the soul - all done in the simplest and most easily conceivable way, since any excessive details would diminish its beauty.

By Pedro Boaventura • Excerpt from Masters of Painting - Volume 1

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Born and raised in Turkey, Nihal started drawing and painting at a young age. Despite her demonstrated talent in art, she studied physics and nuclear engineering and worked in the software analysis field in the U.S. and Canada.

Nihal works in acrylic, oil and pastel at a large scale. She has been generating a consistent body of work as a professional artist and taking classes at the Washington Studio School in Washington, DC and the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery in Glen Echo, MD since 2004. With previous background in engineering, she knows how to model complex systems precisely and objectively, but painting has transformed her approach and provided the insight she needs to create complex and evocative artwork.

Creating a pastiche of light and shadow, Nihal often uses just a palette knife to apply paint to the canvas. She depicts a fragile but boldly expressive interplay between analysis and emotion, concealing and revealing her subject at once. Whether painting whirling dervishes, dramatic landscapes, or impressionistic figures, Nihal masks the known with the unknown and explores the transcendental.

"Through my intuitive painting process, I have learned self-transcendence In some ways knowing is the opposite of creativity, which can only come from not knowing. Each white canvas invites me to stretch my sense of wonder and the painting process starts with, 'what if...'"

Over her prolific past fifteen years, she has exhibited nationally and internationally. Nihal lives and works in Washington DC.

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Nihal Kececi

Nihal Kececi - Video