İrfan Önürmen Click for Artist Information

İrfan Önürmen

Önürmen was born in Bursa in 1958. He studied painting at the Neşe Erdok Studio in Mimar Sinan University, Faculty of Fine Arts. His works predominantly have a figurative style, questioning today’s social events that depict the coincidental essence in the behavior of ordinary people. The figures with vague faces, which lose their identity and thus become uniform, refer to the point of view of the society to the individuals. Starting in late 1990s, in addition to paintings, Önürmen started using “wedding-gown veils” in his works which he names “Pentül” or “Skülptül” and he also creates wall relief works and sculptures with newsprint paper. Complementing his paintings, he also created wall paintings in Antalya, Istanbul and Tunisia. Önürmen differentiated the figurative style, and freed it from the rigid and formal academic style that has influenced the Turkish art from time to time. He also moved the figure from the classical canvas works to installations, without eliminating the approach that from a content standpoint figure is the main structure of the art, but still continues to question the individual, his relationship to the society at the social and political level. İrfan Önürmen participated in fairs and shows in Italy, Germany, Belgium, USA and Switzerland. The artist currently works and lives in Istanbul.