Following Fatih Kızılcan’s solo exhibition Monoton-Monokrom at Maçka Art Gallery, the exhibition titled R | L invited viewers to reflect on the differences between the right and left hemispheres of the brain and the ways in which they converge.

René Descartes (1596–1650), who stated, “All our organs come in pairs; therefore, our brain must also be divided in two,” introduced a line of thought concerning the brain’s dual structure long before the differences between its two hemispheres became a subject of scientific investigation. In the exhibition text, Fatih Kızılcan explored this distinction through the left brain’s tendency to define and interpret the world through naming, writing, and speech.

The artist described the functions of the left and right hemispheres metaphorically:

“Metaphorically speaking, the left brain moves in a straight line, while the right brain spreads outward. As the left brain moves rapidly toward a goal, it has to abstract and summarize everything. To it, anything with four legs is a chair. The type of wood it is made of or the century it comes from makes no difference. The chair has no smell, either. When you sit on it, you do not even see it; you are more interested in the numbers on the screen on the table. After a while, even the rustling of paper disappears. You no longer waste time writing a letter; you send an email or a WhatsApp message to the person sitting across from you, the lover you have met there… The message carries neither the sound of the pen on paper nor the scent of your lover. Without scent, there can be no emotion.”

Kızılcan’s works stood apart from conventional relationships between canvas and brush or drawing and paper, employing instead a distinctive representational technique informed by Gestalt theory, which emerged in the early 20th century. Working by erasing into dark surfaces, the artist brought images into view through the revelation of light and form.

Drawing on key principles of Gestalt theory, including “Emergence,” “Reification,” “Multistability,” and “Invariance,” Kızılcan developed his practice in conceptual alignment with the theory. He explained that this approach enabled him to access the images in his mind more readily. Describing his creative process, the artist stated:

“When erasing, let’s say we begin with the brightest area, erasing the forehead of a figure. At that moment, the eyebrows begin to emerge on their own. It is as though you are sweeping away the earth in an archaeological excavation, and familiar faces begin to appear from beneath.”

Since embarking on his artistic career in 1997, Fatih Kızılcan had held nearly 30 solo exhibitions and participated in exhibitions and art fairs at various institutions in Istanbul, İzmir, and Ankara, among other cities. In R | L, he presented new works that addressed the social and psychological conditions confronting individuals in the challenging world of today. Through critical, figurative, expressive, and fantastical compositions, the artist explored the experiences and states of mind shaped by contemporary life.

R | L offered an artistic perspective on the ways in which people perceive and make sense of the world, questioning the relationships between reason and emotion, abstraction and sensory experience, and the right and left hemispheres of the brain.