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Write: Jülide Karahan

Happy Family Photo

Happy Family Photo

A painter whose paintings collectors line up to buy, Leyla Gediz is at rampa with a show titled ‘coming soon’.

Leyla Gediz went through a bad patch in her personal life. A difficult breakup… But she still attended a friend’s wedding because she had promised she would. It was one of those weddings with tiny cameras at every table. She picked one up and shot a bunch of photos, then tossed the film aside. But of course she didn’t forget. Some time later she mustered up the courage to have it developed. Most of the photos hadn’t come out, and they didn’t have the devastating effect she was hoping to avoid.  But what about the envelope they were in? More precisely, the photo on that envelope. You know, that picture of a happy family in a yellow frame that Kodak uses on its print envelopes... It blew her away. She turned it over and over in her mind until that photo became the point of departure for her show at Rampa, through January 7.

Leyla Gediz

Born in Istanbul in 1974, Leyla Gediz went to England to study in 1993. Starting out at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, she later transfered to the Slade School of Fine Art and eventually earned a graduate degree at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Self - Portrait

The works in the show are quite diverse. One features a rubber dolphin, a bath toy from childhood, its name No me mientas, Spanish for ‘don’t lie to me’. Bright blue and very cute.   Beached, according to Gediz, who made it her self-portrait.