She was born in 1974 in Izmir. She studied Graphic Design and later Fashion and Accessory Design at Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Fine Arts. During her studies, she received awards in design competitions. In 2000, she graduated with a thesis titled “Limited Imagination – Designer’s Perspective.” In 2001, she founded Atölye Pi Design and Art Studio in Karşıyaka, Izmir. She has held several solo exhibitions both in Turkey and abroad, including “Düşbozumu” (Dreambreak), “Yaz (-g-)ı” (Inscription), “Man is Not a Black Stain,” “Oyunbozan” (Spoilsport), “Seesaw,” “Bir Varlık Bir Yokluk” (A Being, A Nothingness), and “Does a Dream Count as a Memory?”. Additionally, her essay book titled “Diğer” (Other) was published in 2024 by Alfa Publishing. She continues her work in writing, drawing, and sculpture at her studio in Karşıyaka, Izmir.
EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition Text: Melike Bayık
“Two Separate Bodies, One Paired Voice”
“A World for Two” begins as a possibility seeping from the edges of time and spilling beyond the boundaries of space. This world does not exist amidst the crowd but apart from it; it appears as a form of retreat, a gesture of refuge against the reign of speed, brutality, and forgetfulness. Here, two figures stand neither completely face-to-face nor entirely intertwined. They stand together without touching, side by side without merging. In this world, what matters is not contact but closeness, not speech but silence, not multitude but emptiness.
Ozan Ünal’s bronze sculptures are not merely forms—they are like spaces that one human being opens for another. The nobility of bronze loosens the figures’ ties with time, placing them on an existential threshold—free from ages, detached from places. This threshold has no language, yet it possesses feeling. The sculptures do not speak, for silence itself becomes a form of expression here. Reminiscent of Michelangelo’s words, “the sculpture was already inside the stone, I just removed the excess,” Ünal, too, removes what is unnecessary—defining even the space between two figures as a form in itself.
This two-person universe is not merely an aesthetic proposition; it carries deep mythological and philosophical connotations. Duality is among humanity’s oldest narrative forms: the brotherhood of Castor and Pollux united in the sky, the unseen love between Eros and Psyche, Orpheus’s final glance at Eurydice… All these stories tell us that the invisible bond between two beings can be deeper than the visible. Ünal’s figures evoke this mythic memory—not a bodily union, but a spiritual solidarity.
The relational structure that this exhibition proposes also resonates within the theoretical field of contemporary art. Here, one might recall Jean-Luc Nancy’s concept of “singular plural being,” suggesting that the self can only be understood in coexistence with the other. These sculptures emerge not from the completion of one another but from the spaces they open for each other within their separateness.
This exhibition, therefore, stands as an act of resistance—aesthetic defiance against the age of haste, noise, and domination. The space between the figures may, in fact, be the most filled space of all, for within it lies mutual recognition, acceptance, and companionship. This two-person world holds the most delicate, resilient, fragile, yet enduring form of coexistence one can imagine.
And perhaps this world exists only for a moment—a dream, a glance, a breath-long fragment of time. Yet in that moment resides the most intimate home, the most enduring bond, and the truest time that one human can share with another.
These sculptures are less a narrative than a reminder: when a person is with another, they are not diminished. On the contrary, they find their place. For sometimes, the greatest worlds are built by only two.
She was born in 1974 in Izmir. She studied Graphic Design and later Fashion and Accessory Design at Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Fine Arts. During her studies, she received awards in design competitions. In 2000, she graduated with a thesis titled “Limited Imagination – Designer’s Perspective.” In 2001, she founded Atölye Pi Design and Art Studio in Karşıyaka, Izmir. She has held several solo exhibitions both in Turkey and abroad, including “Düşbozumu” (Dreambreak), “Yaz (-g-)ı” (Inscription), “Man is Not a Black Stain,” “Oyunbozan” (Spoilsport), “Seesaw,” “Bir Varlık Bir Yokluk” (A Being, A Nothingness), and “Does a Dream Count as a Memory?”. Additionally, her essay book titled “Diğer” (Other) was published in 2024 by Alfa Publishing. She continues her work in writing, drawing, and sculpture at her studio in Karşıyaka, Izmir.
EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition Text: Melike Bayık
“Two Separate Bodies, One Paired Voice”
“A World for Two” begins as a possibility seeping from the edges of time and spilling beyond the boundaries of space. This world does not exist amidst the crowd but apart from it; it appears as a form of retreat, a gesture of refuge against the reign of speed, brutality, and forgetfulness. Here, two figures stand neither completely face-to-face nor entirely intertwined. They stand together without touching, side by side without merging. In this world, what matters is not contact but closeness, not speech but silence, not multitude but emptiness.
Ozan Ünal’s bronze sculptures are not merely forms—they are like spaces that one human being opens for another. The nobility of bronze loosens the figures’ ties with time, placing them on an existential threshold—free from ages, detached from places. This threshold has no language, yet it possesses feeling. The sculptures do not speak, for silence itself becomes a form of expression here. Reminiscent of Michelangelo’s words, “the sculpture was already inside the stone, I just removed the excess,” Ünal, too, removes what is unnecessary—defining even the space between two figures as a form in itself.
This two-person universe is not merely an aesthetic proposition; it carries deep mythological and philosophical connotations. Duality is among humanity’s oldest narrative forms: the brotherhood of Castor and Pollux united in the sky, the unseen love between Eros and Psyche, Orpheus’s final glance at Eurydice… All these stories tell us that the invisible bond between two beings can be deeper than the visible. Ünal’s figures evoke this mythic memory—not a bodily union, but a spiritual solidarity.
The relational structure that this exhibition proposes also resonates within the theoretical field of contemporary art. Here, one might recall Jean-Luc Nancy’s concept of “singular plural being,” suggesting that the self can only be understood in coexistence with the other. These sculptures emerge not from the completion of one another but from the spaces they open for each other within their separateness.
This exhibition, therefore, stands as an act of resistance—aesthetic defiance against the age of haste, noise, and domination. The space between the figures may, in fact, be the most filled space of all, for within it lies mutual recognition, acceptance, and companionship. This two-person world holds the most delicate, resilient, fragile, yet enduring form of coexistence one can imagine.
And perhaps this world exists only for a moment—a dream, a glance, a breath-long fragment of time. Yet in that moment resides the most intimate home, the most enduring bond, and the truest time that one human can share with another.
These sculptures are less a narrative than a reminder: when a person is with another, they are not diminished. On the contrary, they find their place. For sometimes, the greatest worlds are built by only two.
