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.