Bio

Buket Savci is a Turkish American artist. Previously a landscape architect she started studying painting in her home town Istanbul. After immigrating to NYC in 2006 she received her BFA in painting from Pratt Institute, and MFA from New York Academy of Art.

She was awarded Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Painting Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center and a three-month artist residency at Pilotenkueche in Leipzig, Germany. She has won the People’s Choice Award of Jonathan LeVine Projects’ Delusional Art Competition, Grand Prize for See.Me’s Represent and Dave Bown Projects' competitions. Her work has been exhibited widely internationally and nationally at venues such as Ethan Cohen Gallery, Flowers Gallery, RJD Gallery, Field Projects, Kustera Projects, the Untitled Space, Art Hamptons, Governors Island Art Fair, The Immigrant Artist Biennial in NYC, Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, WI, Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, LA, Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo, Palermo, Italy, and Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair in Istanbul, Turkey. She had her first solo show in Istanbul in 2014, two person exhibition at Kunstverein Ludwigsburg in Germany in 2018, and recently a solo show at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH.

Publications of Buket Savci’s work include; The Figure: Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture published by Skira Rizzoli, Istanbul Codex: Contemporary Artists From Turkey by Imago Mundi, Whitehot Magazine, Create Magazine, American Art Collector, Poets and Artists Magazine, and the 7th International Painting Annual by Manifest Press.

She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Statement

When we need it the most we are told not to touch. Touching suddenly became the most scary and dangerous thing. After months of isolation during the NYC lockdown because of Covid-19 pandemic, I question whether we can ever be comfortable to touch and play with each other again. Social distancing and isolation on top of the unknown future made us realize the definition of freedom all over again.
I am an immigrant woman who, after a series of tragedies, decided to change everything in my life. Injustice, inequality, corruption, conservatism, everything became unbearable. First I quit my job and went back to school for painting. Then I left everything; family, friends, my dream school, and immigrated.

Maybe it was an escape, migrating to the other side of the Atlantic. Might be the hope for more freedom. Or just to start over. While dealing with longing, and craving for emotional comfort I started to ask myself what makes me keep going? What makes me happy?

My recent paintings orchestrate multiple figures entangled with each other surrounded by inflatables and toys, painted in vivid colors with details of textiles and patterns. Away from any kind of negativity figures enjoy the moment; freedom and love despite all the threats surrounding them. I use inflatables as a metaphor for the ephemerality of pure joy and happiness. They also represent the false sense of security, and questions our constant drive for satisfaction and pleasure.

Observing the loneliness and need for attention, accompanied with consumerism frenzy globally, my art evolved from being about my personal crisis, to capturing the universal emotional state, especially during the current global social and environmental problems. My paintings have become exploration of definitions of freedom, happiness and celebration of togetherness.