The River Remembers

Kaan Ege Önal was born in 1996 in Kütahya, Turkey, into a family where art was not a hobby but a way of life. He spent his childhood divided between his father’s ceramics studio and his mother’s porcelain painting studio – places brimming with colours, shapes and stories. This early exposure to traditional craftsmanship and aesthetic sensibility continues to shape his artistic sensibility to this day.

He began his journey as an artist in 2010 by attending a secondary school for fine arts, from which he graduated in 2014. This was followed by a degree in painting at the University of Mersin, which he completed after four years with a Bachelor of Arts. In 2017, he moved to Germany – in search of new perspectives and international exchange. Since 2022, he has been exhibiting his work regularly in German cities and has already received several awards for his pieces.

A r t i s t ’ s S t a t e m e n t:

For a long time, my art was loud. It was direct, confrontational, political. I explored inequalities, tensions, and the things we tend to overlook. It was my way of understanding what was happening around me – and of making the world feel a little more tangible.

But at some point, I began to look in a different direction: inwards. It was not a break, but a continuation. I wanted to understand what sustains me, what has shaped me. My roots, my memories, my identity – everything that has quietly accompanied me for as long as I can remember.

Today, I’m particularly interested in the relationship between people and culture. How we’re shaped – consciously or unconsciously. How our history is reflected in symbols, colours and gestures. I work with traditional motifs from different cultures and combine them with figurative representations. Not to show something ‘authentic’ – but to find what we have in common, what unites us, what makes us human across cultural boundaries.

In my paintings, I seek a language that does not need to be loud to be heard. A language that moves us without needing to explain. I believe that art can create spaces in which diversity is seen not as something that divides, but as a source of richness. As an invitation to marvel, to listen, to empathise.

I do not see my work as an answer, but as an invitation. An invitation to remember, to connect – and perhaps to rediscover a part of oneself in something unfamiliar.

:’s working method

For his artworks, Önal forges contacts in various countries to collect traditional fabrics, including materials from Japan, Turkey, Zambia, Iran, India, Greece and other cultures worldwide. For each fabric, he designs a monument-like figure that serves as a symbol of the respective culture. Once the fabric has been carefully stretched onto a stretcher frame, he paints the sculptural shadows of this figure onto the fabric using a single shade of colour. Through this minimalist representation, he transforms the fabric’s original pattern into a symbolic figure.

For Önal, these motifs are like tattoos on the soul: they embody the cultural identity and traditions that shape people.

Exhibitions

2025

• ‘EGO. Art, Society and the Self’, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
• “Perspectives. Viewpoints of Your World”, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen
• “Art Embassy”, Notagallery, Berlin
• “SKM Community”, SKM Gallery, Leipzig
• “Something to Do with Madness”, BBK Osnabrück, Osnabrück
• “ARTLAB”, Benjamin Eck Gallery, Munich

2024

• “ARTOTHEK 2024”, German Bundestag, Berlin
• “Welcome to Reality”, artnow Gallery, Berlin
• “Cologne Museum Night”, 1000freund Gallery, Cologne
• “SKM Community”, SKM Gallery, Leipzig
• “ARTLAB”, Benjamin Eck Gallery, Munich
• “Art Festival”, 1000freund Gallery, Cologne
• “5th Isernhagen Art Biennale: Perspectives 2024”, Isernhagen Cultural Association
• “Bonn Spring Salon”, The Stage Gallery, Bonn

2023   

• “Body Politic”, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück
• “Art Festival”, 1000freund Gallery, Cologne
• “Artistic Odyssey”, Pashmin Art Gallery, Hamburg
• “360°”, Atelierhaus Hasemauer, Osnabrück
• “Did You Look Away?”, Alte Posthalterei, Melle
• “Ingeborg Sieber Foundation Art Promotion Prize”, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück

2022    

• “German Art Prize 2022”, Galerie Jaeschke, Braunschweig
• “Society in Transition”, Berliner Carré, Osnabrück
• “SKM Community”, Stillwerk, Hamburg
• “Shift In Tone”, Vacuo Gallery, Osnabrück
• “Artists’ Residence”, Atelierhaus, Osnabrück
• “Wall of Violence”, Galerie im Fenster, Osnabrück

2017    

• “Atölye”, Gallery of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Mersin
• “Gözgözegeluçurumlardanatla”, Gallery of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Mersin

2016    

• “İçeriksiz”, Fine Arts Gallery, Mersin
• “Srbst’16”, Ciftlikkoy Campus, Mersin

2015    

• “AN-KARA”, Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery, Mersin

Awards

2023

• Art grant: Ingeborg Sieber Foundation 2023 

2022

• Nomination: Ingeborg Sieber Foundation Art Promotion Prize
• Nomination: GERMAN ART PRIZE 2022
• Studio grant from the Egerland Foundation at the Hasemauer Studio House, Osnabrück

Education

2010–2014 Abdurrahman Keskiner Academy of Fine Arts, Osmaniye 

2014–2018 Bachelor of Arts: University of Mersin, Painting, Mersin 

         2020 Master of Arts: University of Osnabrück, Art and Communication, Osnabrück