Mayda Karabogdan is a visual artist and designer currently based in Madrid. Karabogdan holds a BFA from OCAD University (Toronto).  She has exhibited internationally and her work is housed in various private and public collections.


Interested in exploring the representation of the body, Karabogdan depicts personal narratives of identity and personhood through drawing and painting. Her gestural, figurative paintings use journaling as a stepping stone, allowing them to function as psychological studies. The skinlike texture in the paintings is made through the layering of media over fabrics to create surfaces on which the artist can explore. The paintings function as a record of lived experience, using the flesh as an avatar of thought. Just as lived experience imprints onto tissue, the mark-making process creates forms in Karabogdan's pieces. These marks reduce the figure to gestures on a flat picture plane where each gesture is in conversation with the last, similarly to how personal effects and documents form a self or cause reflection. Her work prompts meditative self-reflection in the viewer and to consider the narratives that lead to the work's creation.



contact: maydakara@gmail.com



EDUCATION 


2016    BFA Drawing and Painting, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario.


2013    Visual & Creative Arts, Advanced Diploma, Sheridan College Institute of Technology.



Selected Group Exhibitions 


2020  Print Exhibition, Delphian Gallery, London, UK. 


2020  Intersection 9, A Space Gallery, Toronto, Canada. 


2019  Blue Conclusions, La Manual Studios, Madrid, Spain. 


2019  OPEN!STUDIO ll, Estudio Beneficencia, Madrid, Spain. 


2019  Word Flesh Thought, Estudio Beneficencia, Madrid, Spain. 


2017  Gowlings Exhibition, FCP Gallery, Toronto, Canada. 


2017  Bloom: Studies on Paper, Illyrian Resort, Croatia. 


2016  Westaim Showcase, Toronto, Canada. Curated by Sagan MacIssac. 


2016  Experiencing Perspectives, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Mississauga, Canada. 


2016  GradEx 101, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada. 


2016  Festival of the Body, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada. 


2016  The Big Draw, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada. 


2016  The Small Draw, OCAD Student Gallery, Toronto, Canada. 


2015  Digital Painting Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada.


2015  Art Salon, Gallery 1313, Toronto, Canada.  


2015  INTIMATEFORUM, 322 Dundas St. W., Toronto, Canada. 


2015  Salon of Inclusiveness, The Black Cat Artspace, Toronto, Canada. 


2013  Visual & Creative Arts Exhibition, Sheridan College, Oakville, Canada. 


2013  A Portrait Series, The Marquee, Oakville, Canada. 


2012  Love Letters, Sheridan College, Oakville, Canada. 


2010  Newman Showcase, Starbucks, Hamilton, Ontario. 



Solo / Curation

 

2019  OPEN!STUDIO, Estudio Beneficencia, Madrid, Spain. 


2016  Lost Figures, Plaza, Croatia. 



Artist Talks 


2020  Painting Professional Practice, 401 Richmond, Toronto, Canada. 


2019  Figura Deconstruccion, Estudio Benedicencia, Madrid, Spain. 



Collections


Public Collection in Hamilton Ontario - H.C. Hamilton. 


Private Collection in Croatia & the UK. 



Press & Publications 


2019   Estudio Beneficencia, Malasaña

Artist Feature & Catalogue. (Print)

December 2018. 


2016  OCAD University Undergraduate Catalogue. (Print)

May 2016. 


2010  Hamilton Spectator

Artist in Spotlight - Karabogdan (Print & Online) 

March 2010. 



Self Publication 


2017  Nope, Nothing, Never (Zine) Toronto, Canada. 


2015  Compendia, Toronto, Canada.  



Using Format