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Roksan Kohen - Visual Artist 

Roksan is an independent visual artist who mainly works with drawing and painting as mediums. Originally from Turkey, Roksan had received a BFA from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul and had immigrated to Turtle Island, Canada in 2009. Since then she has been showing and sharing her work through solo and group exhibitions, facilitating drawing / painting classes and mixed media art workshops with kids and adults in British Columbia.

 

She is a founder of Yellowhouse Art Centre Society on Galiano Island BC where she currently lives and works. Yellowhouse Art Centre is a non-profit contemporary art space which serves Galiano Island community since 2017 by hosting art shows, creative workshops for all ages, events, concerts and an Artist in Residency Program. As well as working as a coordinator at Yellowhouse, Roksan continues to teach, collaborate and create artworks on the unceded territories of Penelekut, Lamalcha, Hwitslum, and other Hul qumi num speaking peoples as well as the ceded territory of Tsawwassen First Nations.

Roksan’s series of works mainly explores humans interconnected relationships with their contemporary environments and the processes of transformations through time and generations. The sentence; “All things linger, all things last “from the novel “Jerusalem” by Alan Moore, has inspired her recent body of work about Time. Her artwork includes drawing studies from nature, research of the recent studies about the concepts of time, solo and collaborative artistic experiments, drawings with pen, ink and watercolours as well as paintings with acrylics and oils.

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She sees landscapes of a nonlinear time on the surfaces she that works. She layers the past, present and future all at once and on top of each other. She builds the moments within centuries and vice versa. Every mark stays and spontaneously forms the random scenery of Roksan’s work. Organically growing lines and shapes marks her imaginary lands permanently. They fill the surfaces and the space overwhelmingly with stories which could be seen from a different perspective each time they are looked at, allowing the onlooker to question and consider what they already know, remember or forgot in time. 

“I daily sketch as a foundation for my work. I collect imagery from both outside and insight though I have no set plan when l start a piece. I take a conscious breath or two, I stare, see, draw and repeat until the drawing or painting is complete. I make a point of building the work mark by mark without any regard to aesthetics, morality and reason. I eschew seeing the big picture and try to remain present at the moment. I take the responsibility for each freely appearing line and the surface that is on. I follow the patterns and shapes that form spontaneously in front of my eyes. This process reveals stories that are interconnected and unknown to my consciousness. It helps me to practice awareness, acceptance, openness and patience. To me, it is both a fun adventure and a serious attempt to connect with my complex being. The surprising results always entertain my perception and often guide me to critical thinking about today’s world.”

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Roksan Kohen Parfitt

Galiano Island  May 2020

Education 

1999 - 2004

Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, BFA

Exhibitions 

Solo

2019

Galiano Inn Art Gallery, Galiano Island, BC

2018

Galiano Public Library, Galiano Island, BC

2017

Luppollo Brewing Company, Vancouver, BC

2015

"Wonder", Babes in the Woods Restaurant, Galiano Island, BC

2013

"Search For A Better World", Insight Art Gallery, Galiano Island, BC

2012

"Homo Urbanus", Raw Canvas, Vancouver, BC

2012

"New Spirits", Ottoman Marina Gallery, Bodrum / Turkey

2011

District Fover Gallery, District Hall, North Vancouver, BC

Group

2020

“Art on The Islands”, Southern Gulf Islands Arts Council, Mayne Island, BC

2019

“In a Small Way”, Galiano Inn, Galiano Island, BC

2019

Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC

2018

Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC

2017

Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC

2017

“In a Small Way”, Manzanita Gallery, Galiano Island, BC

2016

Sooke Art Show, Sooke, BC

2014

"Neither/Nor" Curated by Fay Nass, Ayden Gallery, Vancouver, BC

2011

“Psycedelica Moderna”, Hall Gallery, East Vancouver, BC

2011

“Street dance”, Cityscape Community Art Space, North Vancouver

2010

Open Studio, Eastside Culture Crawl, Octopus Studios, Vancouver, BC

2010

“Art in the City”, Westend Community Centre, Vancouver, BC

2010

“Spring”, Istanbul / Turkey

2009

/ “Illus 1”, Lumen Gallery, Vancouver, BC

2009

“Where we start from”, On The Rise Artist Collective Gallery, Vancouver, BC

2009

“BC Art Show”, Heritage Hall, Vancouver, BC

2007

10th International Biennial Performance, Ha Za Vu Zu Project, Istanbul / Turkey

2007

“Young Portraits”, Tesvikiye Art Gallery, Istanbul / Turkey

2005

“Young Portraits”, Tesvikiye Art Gallery, Istanbul / Turkey

2005

“Solidarity with Children”, Union Français Cihangir, Istanbul / Turkey

2003

Cey Fine Arts, Istanbul / Turkey

2002

Yunus Emre Cultural Centre, Istanbul / Turkey

2002

“October Passage - Mild Attack”, Gallery X, Istanbul, Turkey

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