Uras Kızıl

Uras Kızıl graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2015. He studied at the Berlin Freie Universität with the Erasmus program in 2014. Upon his return, he wrote his undergraduate thesis titled Romantic Thought and Romanticism in 19th Century Painting. In 2018, he graduated from Istanbul Technical University Art History Department with his thesis titled The Effects of Romanticism on 20th Century Art. His master's thesis was supported by ITU BAP. Kızıl continues his doctoral studies on the title of “Reflections of Grasping Matter of New Materialism(s) and Its Relation with (Anti) Romanticism in Contemporary Art” at Istanbul Technical University and Berlin Freie Universität. Working as the archive manager of Galeri Nev Istanbul between 2018-2020, Kızıl's texts have been published in publications including such as Borusan Blog, Hürriyet Kitap Sanat, Sanat Dünyamız, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, e-skop, Manifold, Argonotlar, K24, as well as in exhibition catalogs and books since 2015. Kızıl, who is a member of AICA, teaches at the Department of Art Management at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and also works as an independent curator. His last group exhibition of “The New Grammar of Images" was exhibited in Mixer Gallery in İstanbul in 2023.

Website: https://www.instagram.com/uraskizil/

Project:

My project proposal aims to look deeply at the relationship between Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and Romanticism in the context of Contemporary Art(s). While both ideas show closeness in certain aspects, they diverge from each other in certain respects. There is no doubt that the rejection of Enlightenment is one of those closeness. Romanticism does not accept Enlightenment's eternal belief in the human mind and instead embraces the irrational, the irrational.New Materialism-based OOO also undermines anthropocentric thought in different ways unlike Romanticism. The second significant aspect of this closeness is the change in the understanding of nature. Nature is considered beyond being a "resource" for human beings. My article will be to look at these issues through the selected works of both artists (William Turner and Edward Burtynsky) and to discuss the social, political and economic dimensions of art.