Art Basel, Hong Kong (29-31 March, 2018) Pi Artworks Istanbul/London at Art Basel Hong Kong

For Art Basel Hong Kong 2018, Pi Artworks presented newly commissioned works from seven represented artists, Volkan Aslan, Gulay Semercioglu, Susan Hefuna, Tayeba Begum Lipi, Maude Maris and two newest of the newest artists to the roster: Fahrettin Orenli and Kemal Seyhan. The work spans video installation, photography, ink on wood, sculpture and painting and much of the work is new, presented for the first time at the fair and addressing notions of home, gender and cultural and social developments of today.

Pi Artworks Istanbul/London has had a commercial presence in Hong Kong for the past eight years and at Art Basel Hong Kong for the last six; five as part of the fair’s Insights section and then graduating to Galleries last year.

Pi Artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong, Installation view / Courtesy of Pi Artworks Istanbul/London

Volkan Aslan’s (Istanbul), new video Home Sweet Home was shown at 15th Istanbul Biennial (2017) commissioned by Biennial curators Elmgreen & Dragset. For the fair, photographs from this video will be displayed - the first time the work has been shown as an artist print. This work is part of a series that explores the Bosphorus River as the symbolic and physical heart of the city. Aslan has exhibited at Maxxi Museum, Rome (2016); the 13th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2013); Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2009); and the Milan Triennial, Italy (2008).

Pi Artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong, Installation view / Courtesy of Pi Artworks Istanbul/London

Susan Hefuna (New York, Dusseldorf, Cairo) participated in the Insights section 2014 and Galleries section 2017 at the fair with Pi Artworks. This year, her Mashrabiya series features in Pi Artwork’s presentation. Selected exhibitions include TOGATHER (solo), Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK (2017); Barjeel Art Foundation Collection, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2016); Contemporary Art of the Middle East, LACMA, Los Angeles, USA (2015); Another Place (solo), Sharjah Art Foundation (2014); Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany (2014); and selected major collections are Guggenheim New York, USA; Museum of Modern Art; New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Centre Pompidou, France; British Museum, UK.

Pi Artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong, Installation view / Courtesy of Pi Artworks Istanbul/London

Tayeba Begum Lipi (Dhaka) took part in Insights section of the fair in 2015. Her new sculpture Mirror (2017) along with Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye (2015) will be exhibited at the fair. The artist creates everyday objects, often feminine objects, that appear sheathed in suits of protective and precarious metallic armour. Mirror depicts an echoed self-portrait and constructed to use stainless steel razor blades. Her works reflect on both personal and the political, expressing and accentuating a sense of unease through a public form of gendered expression that speaks to challenges faced by the artist and her contemporaries. She has exhibited in the Kathmandu Triennale (2017), the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan (2016), Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (2013), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY and represented Bangladesh at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

Pi Artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong, Installation view / Courtesy of Pi Artworks Istanbul/London

Maude Maris (Paris) participated last year's Galleries section at Art Basel Hong Kong with Pi Artworks. Maris describes her subjects as an architecture of emotion. She uses found fragments to reflect on the relationship between things, exploring stability and precariousness in an attempt to understand the seemingly random or chaotic. For the fair, Maris’s new painting series will be presented. She works from archival photographs of sculptor's studios, and more precisely sculptors who have contributed to the Modernity and who have specifically used photography in their practice. She reconstitutes some views with scaffolding; through her own small moulding objects and tries to capture a kind of instability and precarity into these important figures. Major collections she is featured in include Musee des beaux-arts, Rennes, FRAC Auvergne, FRAC Basse- Normandie Artothèque de Caen, Colas Foundation.

Pi Artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong, Installation view / Courtesy of Pi Artworks Istanbul/London

Fahrettin Orenli (Amsterdam, Istanbul, Seoul) recently opened a solo show at Artsonje Center, Seoul. Orenli’s painting in an artist book with 700 editions - Conspiracy Wall Anartist (2004 – 2014) - will be shown. The artist book reflects the relation between his literary work (poetry) and visual art work (drawing and photography), building a solid bridge between them to deal with complex human, social and political issues of our time. It is a critical voice that expresses the cultural and social developments at present and the artist’s function in society and in the art scene. Orenli was awarded the ABN AMRO Art Prize, Amsterdam in 2004 and the Royal Painting Prize, Amsterdam in 2000. His works have been shown in several international institutions and exhibitions including Istanbul Modern, Total Contemporary Art Museum (South Korea) and Frieze Art Fair. His work is in several collections such as The Vehbi Koç Foundation, ABN-AMRO, De Heus collection, AMC, OCE Technology, Eneco Holding N.V., Erasmus University Rotterdam. The artist will open a solo show at Pi Artworks London in May 2018.

Gulay Semercioglu (Istanbul) returns after participating in Insight 2014 and at Galleries last year. Her new commissioned work Cube in a Cube (2018), is a personal interpretation of an Ottoman Empire textile from Anatolia, which has historically been believed to bring prosperity, fertility and happiness. Upon closer inspection the work reveals its medium-weaved enamel coated silver wire and screws, a technique that recalls the women’s movements of Turkey and the act of knitting as a form of resistance and subversion. Major collections include Cocca Art and Design Institute, Coimbatore, India; Centene Centre for Arts and Education, Missouri, USA; The Farjam Foundation, Dubai, UAE; Istanbul Modern, Turkey and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

Pi Artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong, Installation view / Courtesy of Pi Artworks Istanbul/London

Kemal Seyhan (Istanbul, Vienna), recently took part in a major show at Osthaus Museum Hagen, Germany. Four new paintings will feature at the fair. Seyhan questions what he is performing as an artist and applies the paint in straight vertical or horizontal bars. A painterly stratum is created on each canvas by kilograms of paint applied via thousands of spatula touches. Major exhibitions include Syntax (solo), Osthaus Museum Hagen, Germany (2017); Freundschaftsspiel Istanbul: Freiburg, Museum for Modern Art Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany (2016); Ondas Negras (solo), GPLSpaceVI, Vienna, Austria (2015); 41 Meter (solo), Zorlu Center, Istanbul, Turkey (2013); Slick Art Fair, Brussels, Belgium (2013); Viennafair 2012, Vienna, Austria (2012); Sieben Grenzgänge, House Wittgenstein, Vienna, Austria (2011); Kemal Seyhan (solo), Cora Hölzl Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany (2010).