Born in 1973, Serkan Ozkaya is a Turkish artist.
The title artist does not justify Ozkaya’s brilliance. A modern day renaissance man or polymath, is a more appropriate way to describe this artist’s mastery. Studies and residencies are a familiar place for Ozkaya, spending almost a decade honing his multiple crafts. Today, Ozkaya has over 100 pieces of published press, over 80 group exhibitions, 50 solo exhibitions, a book and a film under his belt. At the youthful age of 44, one can only wonder what else is to come. To top off his overachieving pedigree, Ozkaya almost has an alphabet of letters following his name plus the prefix ‘Doctor.’ Dr. Ozkaya now calls New York City home.
Ozkaya is often described as a contemporary conceptual artist. Growing up in Istanbul, a place where no international art collections existed at the time, a young Ozkaya marvelled at international art collections through photocopies of books. Here is where his interest of reproducing and interpreting classical art began. In 2005 Ozkaya completed his most renowned piece to date, a 33ft golden statue of David (inspired by Michelangelo). The golden masterpiece and its of tumultuous creation story was published in book form in 2011. 5 years later the book has been adapted into a documentary with the same title, ‘The Rise and Fall and Rise of David’ (2016).
We had the pleasure to shoot Ozkaya’s studio as he prepared for his forthcoming exhibition that opens in October 2017
