Biography
He is a Georgian / Turkish artist was born in 1990 in Artvin/Turkey. He studied high school in painting department of Ankara Anatolian High School of Fine Arts between 2004-2008. He studied Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts department of Sculpture between 2008-2013.
After completing his 9-year art education in 2013, he started to participate in international organizations, festivals, symposiums . The artist, who had the chance to participate in the first international art activity in 2014, has made 26 public space sculptures in 14 different countries. These countries are France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Russia, South Korea, Egypt, Italy, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Iran, Belarus, Canada and Unitet States of America.
Gorel has set up a temporary studio in Montreal, Canada, while also working in his permanent studio located in Ankara, Turkey.
Artist’s Statement
My artistic practice developed from an academic education centered on the human figure and object-based representation, before gradually evolving toward a more abstract visual language. Years of working with reproduction and concrete forms eventually created in me a need to distort lines, fragment structures, and transform form. What first emerged instinctively and unconsciously gradually developed into a search for a personal visual language and an individual form of expression.
When the Colors Fade now marks the beginning of a new stage in this exploration, as I consciously return to the human figure after several years devoted to a more abstract sculptural language. This return, however, is not a return to the anatomical figure shaped by my academic training. It reaches much further back, into my childhood memories.
Before receiving formal academic training in anatomy, I used to play drawing games with my older brother. The simple and spontaneous human figures that emerged from those moments became the starting point for this series. They were concerned neither with anatomical accuracy, ideal beauty, nor realistic representation. Instead, they expressed a direct, intuitive, and instinctive way of representing the human being. Years later, I now revisit these figures through the lens of my artistic experience and present-day reflection.
When the Colors Fade therefore represents more than a simple transition from abstraction to figuration. The series is also a return to a visual memory that existed before my formal artistic education, an attempt to rediscover the spontaneity of line and the childhood figure while integrating them into a contemporary sculptural language.
The human figures in the series do not represent specific individuals or particular stories. Rather, they open a space for reflection on humanity and the human condition. Humanity’s relationship with nature, its desire to possess and dominate, its conflicts, mistakes, fears, past, and future are explored through these figures.
Rather than idealizing the human being, I seek to make visible its contradictions and imperfections. The figures therefore carry within them what belongs to humanity: its mistakes, recurring behaviors, complex relationship with nature, conflicts with others, and uncertainties about the future.
When the Colors Fade is therefore not a break from my abstract sculptural practice, but a new way of exploring form, memory, and the human condition. A figure born from a simple childhood drawing becomes, years later, a conscious artistic language that invites the viewer to reflect on our past, our desires, our contradictions, and our future.
Exhibitions
| 2025 | 20th Alanya International Stone Sculpture Symposium (Alanya, Turkey) |
| 2025 | 29th Aswan International Sculpture Symposium (Aswan, Egypt) |
| 2024 | 17th Création sur le champ, Land Art (Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada) |
| 2024 | 4th International Sculpture Symposium Pietra Sublime (Bellosguardo, Cavriglia, Italy) |
| 2023 | 27th Art Festival on the Sea Stone Sculpture Symposium (San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy) |
| 2022 | 11th National and International Straw and Hay Sculpture Contest (Valloire, France) |
| 2022 | 8th Beauce Art International Sculpture Symposium (Saint-Georges, Quebec, Canada) |
| 2022 | 1st International Fire Sculptures Festival (Fingig, Luxembourg) |
| 2021 | 1st Ost Academy International Stone Art Festival (Minsk, Belarus) |
| 2020 | 1st Shiraz International Sculpture Symposium (Shiraz, Iran) |
| 2020 | 37th National and International Snow Sculpture Contest (Valloire, France) |
| 2020 | 5th International Snow Sculpture Festival (Pontebba, Italy) |
| 2019 | 16th Alanya International Stone Sculpture Symposium (Alanya, Turkey) |
| 2019 | 5th Biennial Outdoor Sculpture Symposium O Grove (O Grove, Spain) |
| 2019 | 7th International Sculpture Symposium Drumuri Brâncușiene (Craiova, Romania) |
| 2019 | Festival Fleurs de Lava Stone Sculpture Symposium (Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise, France) |
| 2019 | 2nd International Symposium of Monumental Sculpture on Marble (Béziers, France) |
| 2019 | 29th International Dolomites Snow Sculpture Festival (San Candido / San Vigilio, Italy) |
| 2018 | WYF Reviving Humanity Memorial Sculpture Symposium (Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt) |
| 2018 | 1st Altai Magnet International Wood Sculpture Symposium (Barnaul, Russia) |
| 2018 | Daekyo International 3D Symposium and Exhibition (Seoul, South Korea) |
| 2018 | Lukomorye International Wood Sculpture Symposium (Irkutsk, Russia) |
| 2017 | 13th International Sculpture Symposium (Davos, Switzerland) |
| 2015 | Gare Art Festival International Sculpture Symposium (Luxembourg) |
| 2015 | 2nd Festival Fleurs de Lava Stone Sculpture Symposium (Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise, France) |
| 2014 | 23rd Menet International Stone Sculpture Symposium (Menet, France) |
| 2014 | 14th International Knidos Culture and Art Academy Sculpture Symposium (Muğla, Turkey) |
| 2014 | 1st Gaziantep University International Stone Sculpture Symposium — Assistant (Gaziantep, Turkey) |
| 2014 | 4th International Municipality of Lüleburgaz Bronze Sculpture Symposium — Assistant (Lüleburgaz, Turkey) |
| 2013 | Adıyaman University, 5th Faculty of Fine Arts Graduates Exhibition — Group Exhibition (Adıyaman, Turkey) |
| 2013 | 3rd International Municipality of Kartal Sculpture Symposium (Istanbul, Turkey) |
| 2013 | 10th International Municipality of Alanya Stone Sculpture Symposium — Assistant (Antalya, Turkey) |
| 2013 | Erdemir National Student Sculpture Competition, Steel and Life Exhibition (Istanbul, Turkey) |
| 2013 | 3rd International Municipality of Nilüfer Kuzgun Acar Sculpture Symposium — Assistant (Bursa, Turkey) |
| 2012 | 10th International Knidos Culture and Art Academy Sculpture Workshop (Muğla, Turkey) |
| 2012 | Municipality of Tepebaşı, From Junkyard to Sculpture Project (Eskişehir, Turkey) |
| 2012 | Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts, Gallery S and G, Group Sketch Exhibition (Eskişehir, Turkey) |
| 2011 | Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts, Group Sculpture Exhibition (Eskişehir, Turkey) |
| 2011 | 1st International Eskişehir Stone Sculpture Symposium — Assistant (Eskişehir, Turkey) |
| 2008 | 10th Municipality of Çankaya Painting and Music Festival (Ankara, Turkey) |
| 2008 | Ankara Anatolian High School of Fine Arts, Group Sculpture Exhibition (Ankara, Turkey) |
| 2008 | Ankara Anatolian High School of Fine Arts, Group Exhibition, Comment (Ankara, Turkey) |
| 2007 | Modern Art Center, Group Painting and Sculpture Exhibition (Ankara, Turkey) |
| 2006 | Ankara University House of Culture and Art, Group Painting Exhibition (Ankara, Turkey) |
| 2004 | Gölbaşı Art Studio, Group Painting Exhibition (Ankara, Turkey) |
