Seçkin Pirim’s “Remains” exhibition opens at Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum, Turkey’s first and largest museum of plastic arts, on 31 October. Osman Erden is art consultant for the exhibition, which is located in the ground floor corridor on the Meclis-î Mebûsan Caddesi side of the museum. However, his sculpture entitled “Sarcophagus”, can be seen on the third floor atrium balcony, where you can view the spaces with sarcophagi uncovered during excavations of the Cannon Foundry School carried out by Istanbul Archaeological Museums.
Seçkin Pirim attended Istanbul Anadolu High School for Fine Arts and after graduating in painting in 1995 studied at the Sculpture Department of Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts. He went on to complete his master’s degree in the same department in 2001. Pirim grew up in a milieu of poets, architects, painters and sculptors, and was taught in the studios of various artists from the age of 8. As an artist he based his technique on what he learned from these masters and on his passion for travelling around the world.
In the course of his travels at various times to ancient cities in Anatolia and neighbouring regions, Pirim studies the styles of ancient sculptors and the forms that shaped their careers; focusing particularly on Aphrodisias, where the first school of sculpture was situated, and its environs. His latest exhibition, “Remains”, consists of a series of nine new works that reflect sculptural forms from antiquity to the present day. In these works he examines the systematic relations between architecture, design, sculpture and museums. He also investigates relations between types of sculpture production and our ways of perceiving them from past to present, inviting the viewer to think about the role of contemporary public sculpture.
The “Remains” exhibition will remain on view at Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum until 29 February 2024.
Seçkin Pirim (born 1977, Ankara) has taken part in many one-person and mixed exhibitions at local and international art institutions and has received over twenty prizes in the fields of sculpture and design. Among the institutions where his works have been shown are Borusan Sanat, Pera Museum, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Glory Yeh Museum & Sculpture Park, Yverdon-les-Bains and the Saatchi Gallery. Collections with examples of his works include the National Art Museum of China, Istanbul Modern Art Museum, the Eczacıbaşı Foundation Collection, Odunpazarı Modern Museum, the Baksı Museum and the Elgiz Museum. Pirim continues to work in both Istanbul and London.
