Paris Internationale - © Paris Internationale
Öktem Aykut - © Paris Internationale
Öktem Aykut

Founded by Doğa Öktem and Tankut Aykut in November, 2014. Öktem Aykut is a contemporary art gallery in the heart of Istanbul, representing a roster of established and emerging Turkish and international artists. The gallery has organized over 150 exhibitions in three gallery locations as well as external off-site locations. Öktem Aykut prioritizes participating in local and international art fairs recognized around the world. The gallery aims to work with artists of diverse backgrounds with alternating artistic references and a common critical approach towards contemporary societal conditions.

Meşrutiyet Cd. No:99, 34430 Beyoğlu/İstanbul

Renée Levi

Öktem Aykut - © Paris Internationale
Öktem Aykut - © Paris Internationale
Öktem Aykut - © Paris Internationale
Öktem Aykut - © Paris Internationale

Öktem Aykut presents new works by Renée Levi for the 2024 edition of Paris Internationale. Levi has been investigating the medium of painting in her spatially extensive installations. The presentation at Paris Internationale will include Levi’s same-sized small paintings on jute accompanied by a free-standing site-specific large painting on cotton.

The presentation will mark one of the rare occasions that the artist will show works that are significantly smaller in scale. This new series aims to perform a balancing act between the gestural power of her signature large-scale pieces and the intimacy of her small-scale works. The pieces themselves, with their transparent priming, reveal the weave of the jute while the raw marks of the brushes and paint rollers show the coarse materiality of painting and its gestural quality.

Renée Levi was born 1960, in Istanbul and grew up in Aargau. She lives and works in Basel. Levi has been investigating the medium of painting, in her spatially extensive installations as she expands the effects of color and form to break the boundaries within the space. She merges painting and architecture in unconventional ways bringing to light a whole new set of dynamics within the medium. Levi’s interventions are both piercing and precise. Her use of color and her shapes take on a powerful presence in a lively and luminant way.

After studying architecture at the HTL Muttenz/Basel, Levi studied at the Zurich School of Art and Design. In 1998, she started working together with Marcel Schmid as a studio partner. Recent solo exhibitions include at Öktem Aykut (Istanbul, 2022); Villa du Parc (Annemasse, 2021); Musée d’Art, Histoire et Archéologie d’Évreux (2020); Biennale de Lyon (2019); Museum Langmatt (Baden, 2019) and Istituto Svizzero Milan (2019). The artist has been included in numerous group exhibitions, such as Kunsthalle Zurich (2013), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2023); Centre d’art Pasquart (Biel, 2022); MAMCO (Geneva, 2021); Istituto Svizzero Rome (2019); Kunstverein Munich (2015); Centre d’art contemporain, Villa du Parc Annemasse (2014) or at Frac Bretagne Rennes (2013). Renée Levi has received several awards, including the Prix de la Société des Arts de Genève, Arts Visuel, in 2019, or the Prix Meret Oppenheim in 2002. Levi is the winner of the public art competition of the Parliament Building in Bern, Switzerland. Her solo project LA ELLE is currently on view at Palais de Tokyo.

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