Deniz Ulaş ATLI
Born in Diyarbakır, Türkiye, in 1992, Deniz Ulaş Atlı graduated from the Department of Fine Arts Education at Anadolu University. Alongside his artistic practice, he has worked in secondary education and with disadvantaged communities. He currently lives and works in Mersin, where he continues his artistic production in his studio while also working as a teacher.
Atlı’s figure-centred practice explores space not as a geographical or representational setting, but as a psychological and existential condition. His figures appear suspended, gradually losing their sense of direction, position, and weight. As the boundaries between figure and environment dissolve, an ambiguous space emerges in which identity, belonging, and perception become increasingly unstable.
Rather than presenting fixed narratives, Atlı investigates the processes through which the foundations of human experience begin to shift, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world around them.
Artist Statement
Mental Drift
My artistic practice explores the moment when the references that allow individuals to situate themselves in the world — space, belonging, memory, and a sense of direction — begin to lose their reliability.
We define ourselves not only through our existence, but also through the ground to which we are anchored. As this ground is continually reconstructed, the boundary between the figure and the world begins to blur.
In my paintings, I do not depict a specific event, but rather the residue it leaves behind. The figures are anonymous, directionless, and suspended; space is no longer geographical, but psychological.
Mental Drift investigates not the disappearance of the individual, but the gradual loss of definition in the world through which one understands and situates oneself. Rather than offering a ready-made narrative, the work invites the viewer to become part of a suspended act of witnessing.
Selected Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2019 — Kırmızı Kitap, AÇS Art Gallery, Adana, Türkiye
2019 — Refleks, Atölyeart Art Gallery, Mersin, Türkiye
Group Exhibitions
2026 — Frekans D: Artists Producing in Mersin, Ahmet Yeşil Art Gallery, Mersin
2026 — 1st Turan Erol Art Awards Painting Competition, Zülfü Livaneli Cultural Center, Ankara
2023 — Group Painting Exhibition, Ninecim Art House, Bursa
2022 — 39th DYO Painting Competition, Yaşar Education and Culture Foundation, İzmir
2019 — Mardin Buluşması, Şahmeran Mansion, Mardin
2019 — SPOILER, Kuytu Artline Art Gallery, Istanbul
2018 — Uğurlama, Aratos Culture and Art House, Tarsus
2013 — 4th Artists Teachers Exhibition, Eskişehir Art Association
Awards
2023 — Achievement Award, 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye Painting Competition
2017 — Honorable Mention, 3rd Adana Painters Association Painting Competition
2013 — Third Prize, Eskişehir Rotary and Anadolu University 10th Traditional Painting Competition
© 2019. LPA Gallery
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