Meral Akyuz

The exquisite, moody encaustic and mixed media compositions of Meral Akyuz emerge from a series of contrasts and conflicts to convey a sensuous, seductive melancholy. Based in New Jersey, where she grew up in an Italian-Turkish family, her stripped, near-abstract compositions simultaneously express very personal hardships and speak to universal struggles against isolation. Layering materials – thread, paper, ink, paint – in her carefully textured compositions, she creates the impression of grids and organic forms struggling to define themselves against an all-enveloping force that threatens to annihilate difference.

Most of her paintings are dominated by a gritty off-white hue that harbors pockets of color, generally browns, blues and fleeting shades of pink and red. Whether painting cityscapes, interiors, still lifes or portraits, she conveys a sense of memories half-remembered and evocative views glimpsed for mere seconds. Akyuz writes that her pieces represent  “a visual struggle between the physical beauty of the piece and the ugliness in the concept,” resulting in a mood of beautiful sadness.