Elif Sezen

Atmospheres

June 6th – 28th, 2025

Elif Sezen Atmospheres Catalogue

Atmospheres explores the interplay of space, colour and light in experimental landscapes that reflect on perception, memory and place. Featuring works from Elif Sezen’s ongoing series, Presence, the exhibition draws on various sources of inspiration including Michel Foucault’s notion of ‘heterotopias’—worlds within worlds—to evoke ethereal, alternate realities that are at once cosmic and deeply introspective.

Combining painting, photography and digital media, Sezen presents archival metallic prints that consider how light can be observed as symbolic, mystical gateways. These portals transform memory, thought and emotion, revealing layered psychological landscapes. Colour becomes a subtle energetic force, guiding viewers through states of awareness, contemplation and healing.

Her work conjures dreamlike atmospheres—ranging from imagined galaxies and symbolic geometries to surreal, abstract forms—inviting audiences into immersive, otherworldly environments that expand the boundaries of perception. Although partly reminiscent of nature, these ethereal worlds seek to expand the intangible experience of entering a new space physically, spiritually, psychologically, ontologically and cosmologically.

Sezen’s broader multidisciplinary art practice engages with interwoven themes of trauma, grief, displacement, homecoming, reintegration and transcendence. She reconceptualises and poeticises memory traces and existential states through diverse media including painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and poetry-based installations. She experiments in creating artistic expressions that are imaginative, yet also grounded in contemporary thought, exploring the universality of the human experience. Her current projects focus on sculptural forms, installations, as well as on multiple series of abstract landscapes with symbolic, ethereal and psychedelic impressions. Sezen has exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent shows at Project8 Gallery (2024), The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2024), CICA Museum, Korea (2024) and the Metro Tunnel Creative Program (2023–2024). She holds a PhD in Fine Art from Monash University and lives and works in Melbourne.