Sefa Çakır’s new solo show opens at Vision Art Platform
ISTANBUL
Istanbul’s Vision Art Platform is hosting Sefa Çakır’s new solo exhibition, “I Closed the Door from the Outside.”
The show, which opened on Nov. 20, will be on view until Jan. 6, 2026, at Vision Art Platform in Akaretler.
In this exhibition, the artist departs from the discreet and nuanced lexicon that many artists protect in their practice. Instead, he becomes demonstrably precise and specific in constructing images that caution, evoke and resonate. The works suggest a world where something feels unsettled, where the young appear caught in a difficult moment. Nothing in these images is glamorous or bright; rather, they depict a world marked by unease.
Çakır’s signatures include lyrical images of children, defiant or baleful youths, young mothers with infants, decrepit wooden houses, and the recurring presence of gigantic bees. His deep-hued monochromatic imagery and organic, pixelated marker technique generate vibrating surfaces and animated textures. He frequently rejects traditional figure–ground relationships, turning instead to the seamless darkness familiar from photographic portraiture. In some works, distant skies appear as dark, frenetic backdrops, reinforcing the sense of seclusion or resigned isolation in his subjects.
Across the series, many environments are black, nearly empty or broken. When skies appear, they are cloudless and dull grey, producing a melancholic sense of something lost. A subtle poetic narrative runs beneath these choices, hinting at influential but unseen events and experiences. The works feel connected to people and places that remain invisible to the viewer, yet the precision of Çakır’s arrangements suggests an otherworldly or intangible presence.
Some portraits employ extreme close-ups, isolating faces with fixed, powerful stares that confront the viewer as much as the artist confronts the subject. At times, Çakır takes on the role of documentarian, capturing candid-looking moments that reveal confidence or self-awareness. His architectural background often appears derelict, evoking abandonment and disrepair.
Yet the artist destabilizes conventional documentary framing by shifting viewing angles and, at times, allowing the subject to dominate the observational space. Through subdued colors and stark depths, this technique produces expressions of defiance or knowing awareness.
Other works show children absorbed in scenes beyond the frame. In a group of images combining children with uninhabitable buildings, a sense of Depression-era wistfulness emerges. One piece depicts two children holding hands but looking away from each other, their black-and-white figures set against a blood-red background. Another portrays children celebrating their candy canes before an old barn-like structure, reversing the color coding with red figures and a black-and-white ground. Çakır’s two-color system highlights the precision of his image selection and drawing technique.
A recurring oversized bee introduces a surreal note. Its symbolism is ambiguous — threat, laborer, pollinator, or a simple emblem of possibility. At this scale, floating in space, it becomes strangely unthreatening, even friendly.
In “I Closed the Door from the Outside,” Çakır offers a rare inside look at his artistic concerns through deliberate viewpoints, reductive forms, deep colors and the careful depiction of derelict buildings and youthful figures. The works together form a vivid expression of melancholy, resilience and poetic tension.
The exhibition is open to visitors every day except Sundays and Mondays.