Interview : Küntay Tarık Evren
Luca Curci talks with Küntay Tarık Evren during BARCELONA CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR 2021, held in Barcelona, at Valid World Hall Gallery.

The artist was born in Bursa, Turkey, on 19 May 1989. He started painting when he was a child. The artist, who continued his interest in painting as an amateur hobby, started to study art in the visual communication and design department of Beykent University in 2007 and continued his studies in Milano Academy of Fine Arts as of 2009. The artist received graphic design and visual arts education and graduated in 2013. Between 2015-2019, he worked with a lot of brands in the advertisement sector in Turkey. In 2019, he left the advertisement sector, and he committed all his time to paint.

Luca Curci – What are you currently working on?
Küntay Tarık Evren – My head is always full of multiple projects, so I work on more than one job at a time. At the moment, I’m making new paintings, I’ve also turned to sculpture and at the same time, I’m designing a cartoon.

LC – What’s your background?
KT – Although I have been drawing doodles since my childhood, my education and professional life progressed in a slightly different direction than painting. After graduating from Milan Fine Arts Faculty in 2013, I worked in advertising for many years and received awards in my field. In those years, painting was an escape for me. In 2019, I decided to make this escape route my way of life and resigned, and with the pandemic that changed all of our lives, I followed me heart and put painting at the center of my life.

LC – What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
KT – I can definitely say, Keith Haring. His work inspires me the most.

LC – Did your style change over the years? In which way?
KT – Change is an indispensable element of life and, of course, art. That’s why I evolve my existing style by waking up with a new perspective and a new horizon every day.

LC – What is your creative process like?
KT – Put simply, I feed off of chaos. All the things that I threw in the back of my mind, I vomit with lines. My creative process is more from the inside out. Everything I couldn’t say, did say, did live, and didn’t live echoes in my ears.

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks?
KT – My drawings consist of mind-drawn lines without hesitation or copying. When I draw a line, I no longer have a chance to dislike it and erase it, I cannot paint over it. All I can do is accept it, create a new world out of it, or transform it into something else. This is the part that challenges me while making my works unique. You can’t take back what you’ve lived, like life, but you can transform and alter it.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the festival’s theme?
KT – I exhibited my works on the street next to a garbage can or hung them on a building to be demolished and exhibited there, for me everything is connected with everything. Nothing in the world works independently of another.

LC – What do you think about the ITSLIQUID Platform?
KT – A platform that makes young artists like me feel valued. Through you, I would also like to thank them for this opportunity, this value.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
KT – I would like to explain myself rather than be understood. My works always tell something. ITSLIQUID GROUP exhibited my work in Barcelona, allowing me to express myself in other languages.

LC – What is art for you?
KT – It is the strongest trace left by the creative brain to the world. It can be erased but not destroyed.