Oguz Buykberber is a world-wide known contemporary musician and composer. He is an expert playing bass clarinet and contemporary music. He has also practiced visual arts throughout his life. He graduated from the most reputable Turkish arts school: The Faculty of Fine Arts of Mimar Sinan University.  After building a strong arts foundation at Mimar Sinan, he moved to Amsterdam and studied bass clarinet in the Amsterdam Conservatory and became a professional in the field.

 

He is a distinguished artist, his music and his art works have a very particular and unique tone.  He is passionate about making art, creating expressions and compositions despite, or maybe because of, his special eye condition.  His art brings to mind the view that it is by no coincidence that many Great Masters all had a type of visual impairment while creating some of their masterpieces.

 

For example, El Greco suffered from a severe astigmatism, which is the distortion of the eye that stretches the world vertically. Leonardo Da Vinci is believed to have suffered from a type called intermittent exotropia, a condition which causes one or both eyes to turn outward. Rembrandt Van Rijn painted his eyes turning outwards in many of his self-portraits which would be because of a lack of depth perception, also known as stereo blindness. Edgar Degas suffered retinal disease, probably macular degeneration, for nearly half his life. Monet was diagnosed with a nuclear cataract in both eyes in 1912. And Pablo Picasso… He is one of the many artists who had strabismus, which is abnormal alignment of the eyes, and he was able to create amazing pieces of art despite his inability to perceive depth.

 

Genco Gulan, Artist & Founder of Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum, introduced me to Oguz Buyukberber. It was a pleasure to meet the artist and his artworks. It is a rare experience to observe that the artist’s expertise with music is reflected in his visuals, creating a strong sensation.  When I first saw his art works, the first painter who came to mind was Wassily Kandinsky. I was thrilled. It may seem as a stable image from the outside however the longer it is perceived, notes come to the forefront, notes caused by the orchestration of the visuals that found a way and touched my soul, creating a composition of emotions. All put together by the synthesis of colors, lines, and forms in his digital paintings. 

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"Processing" is the first online exhibition of the artist, which features the artist’s abstract expressionist digital paintings. The artist also has video art works in this exhibition, in which his unique and profound images are accompanied by live electronic music composed by himself adding to the viewers visual experience.

 

I wanted to interview Oguz Buykberber and learn more about him from his own words. Thus, we could find the opportunity to talk about various subjects such as his creative process, his career and his personal experiences as an artist. 

 

Now I invite you to visit the exhibition and read our interview with Oguz Buyukberber and I hope that this section would be inspiring & stimulating for you as it was for me throughout the conversation.