Galleri Magnus Karlsson

At Market Art Fair 2023 Galleri Magnus Karlsson presents a solo exhibition by Duda Bebek, consisting of a new series of paintings, shown for the first time at the fair. Duda Bebek’s works often depict the dark corners of the contemporary world, where almost familiar characters and shapes merge with the abstract landscape of internet culture and our modern society. Inspired by classical art as well as the imagery of social media, Bebek’s paintings examine the at times mythologized concept of femininity. For Bebek, the painted image is necessary for her to construct and reconstruct the perception of her own experiences. I work with repetitions of an emotional problem or condition, through ’trial and error’ I try to reach a point where the painting becomes autonomous and logical in its physical form. The recent paintings are portraits of the child painted from the mother’s perspective, where the mother’s own story and psychological drama are also visualized. The child is a part of her but at the same time in the middle of a process and a quest to become independent and find its own identity.

Duda Bebek (Sweden, b. 1983) lives and works in Stockholm. She studied at the Art Academy Valand in Gothenburg (2007–2012) with an exchange at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (2010–2012).