"Designs of Universe 2003 - 2004"
An Exhibition by İsmail Ateş

September 2-22, 2004

Reception: Thursday, September 2 6:00 pm-8:00 pm
Viewing hours: Monday through Friday 9:00 am-5:00 pm

The exhibition will be closed on September 6.

Turkish Culture and Tourism Office
821 United Nations Plaza
(First Avenue and 46th Street)
First Floor
New York, NY 10017

Ismail Ates' paintings reflect his effort of making life visible through the use of geometric shapes and light-color transitive planes, which are formed on sensitive balances. The feeling of excitement comes from the colors and not from just studying the particles in nature and shaping them. By reflecting thoughts, feelings, longing, pain, excitement, dreams, hope and hopelessness, Ismail Ates attempts to explain himself to others through this project. As Gombrich says:

" The aforesaid 'thing', however much skillfully made, is not the copy of the real thing and however more knowledgeable, it is only a decoration. It is more reliable and stronger than both of them. The 'thing' the artist senses is much more real than the usual objects in our daily lives.

To be able to understand this type of intelligence, we should remember our childhood - the time when we believed in creating something by using brick and sand and the days when we transformed the broomstick to an enchanted cane or a few pieces of rock to a dreamy castle."

Ismail Ates, who has had over twenty exhibitions in Turkey and abroad, is currently teaching at Hacettepe University's Faculty of Fine Arts and doing research on "American Art" and "Art Training" in the Department of Art at the City University of New York Hunter College. Some of his paintings are in various museums and private collections.