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Anglim Gilbert Gallery  

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Canan Tolon

Canan Tolon is primarily interested in “landscapes of absence.” Her paintings study the conceptualization of space filtered through multiple dimensions including imagination, memory and time. Though her technique of repetitious gestures that scrape and slice oil paint across slick surfaces may initially present as pure geometric abstraction, a longer gaze will uncover transient urban scenes and sprawling constructions resembling photographs of places and events. The effect is as if viewing a time-lapse simulated reality through the lens of a kaleidoscope. They are paintings that are like something else, becoming an exercise in perception suspended between truth and illusion, stasis and flux.

Born in Istanbul, Canan Tolon has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years. She has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Berlin and in both Istanbul and Ankara, where she has a devoted following. Her work is included in the public collections of the British Museum in London and Istanbul Modern in Istanbul. Educated in Germany, England, and at UC Berkeley, Tolon has exhibited with the gallery since 1997.

Artist Bio (PDF)
Artist's Website

Previous Exhibitions:
Where Were We
February 15–March 17, 2018

Selected Press:
Daily Sabah, September 2019
ftn News, September 2019
Time Out Istanbul, September 2019
Square CylinderSquare Cylinder – Best of 2018

Canan Tolon: You Tell Me, Istanbul Modern

September 6, 2019-February 2, 2020

Canan Tolon: You Tell Me, Istanbul Modern

September 6, 2019-February 2, 2020

Canan Tolon, Untitled 7.2.2017, 2017

Oil on canvas, 78 x 72 in.

Untitled 11.2, 2017, Oil on canvas, 66 x 66 in.

Canan Tolon , Untitled (96.15), 1996

Oil on mylar, 14" x 17"

Canan Tolon , Untitled (23.07), 1995

Oil on mylar, 14” x 11”

Canan Tolon, Untitled (23.02), 1997

Oil on mylar, 14” x 11”

Canan Tolon, El Nino 2, 2016

Acrylic and rust on canvas over wood, 14" x 11"

Canan Tolon, El Nino 6, 2016

Acrylic and rust on canvas over wood, 24" x 24 1/4"

Anglim Gilbert Gallery ©2019

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