Emre Tandırlı

Born in Istanbul in 1977, Emre Tandırlı completed his undergraduate studies in the Department of Painting at Mimar Sinan University Faculty of Fine Arts, followed by a master’s degree from the same institution. Directly after earning a second master’s degree in the Department of Plastic Arts at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, he received his Ph.D. in Art Sciences from the same university. Tandırlı renders the spiritual reflections of our inner attachment to the complex, dense fabric of Istanbul—now a sprawling megacity—through a distinctly poetic and romantic aesthetic.

Engaging with the most current urban landscapes of the ever-evolving megacity in which he lives, Tandırlı translates them onto canvas through a spellbinding atmosphere and a dreamlike interpretation. By elevating the unplanned urban sprawl—which he characterizes as a "dense and dynamic stacking"—into the primary aesthetic component of his compositions, he engages in a satirical celebration. The artist presents viewers with an alternative, reverie-like vision of Istanbul. Aiming to evoke intense emotional responses, he captures the enigmatic, dreamlike panoramas lying beneath the surface of the mundane, visible city using rich, vibrant palettes and meticulous details.

Adopting a "New Romantic" approach and a classical posture within the contemporary art scene, Tandırlı foregrounds that which is distinctly our own: the picturesque and poetic dimensions of the cityscapes we inhabit. Within this framework, he explores both the controlled and serendipitous properties of oil paint on canvas, orchestrating them into a unified whole endowed with boundless expressive depth. In doing so, he integrates the enduring power of painting as an applied discipline with classical canvas techniques and urban scenery, forging a novel, singular idiom. He strives to distill realistic megacity dreams into landscape vistas decipherable through visionary impressions of Istanbul.

By offering an alternative interpretation on canvas of an urban imagery that is deeply familiar—and thus uniquely our own—amid the routine of a congested, intricate metropolis like Istanbul, Tandırlı proceeds from a Platonic quest for an ideal beauty. Striving to illuminate the spiritual echoes of our intrinsic bond with these familiar vistas, the artist cultivates and advances a contemporary New Romantic painting sensibility through his brushwork.