Özer Toraman is a young artist from İstanbul, Turkey. Relying on queer theory and politics, Özer Toraman’s work ventures outside of the entrenched and the constructed. They can be defined as portraits developed in order to counter impose the narrow-minded politics of identity and gender.
“Specifically formulated through the expressive capacities of painting, these works are quite significant in that they make visible physical differences that the system denies and ignores. Devoid of sexist contours, Özer Toraman’s figures explore a singularity that falls outside of the duality of masculine/feminine. So much that in some of his paintings, figures placed inside a counteracting composition draw notice due to their sameness. Özer Toraman ponders the limits of sexist categorization and reconsiders them in order to create hybrid figures that belong to neither gender. While some portraits are noticeably sharp, others are indistinct and allude to the different genders of our collective consciousness, whispering into our ear.”
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