Flying Stars

Belkıs Balpınar

1941 born in Turkey ​ Belkıs Balpınar found a unique abstract visual language that combines modernist aesthetics with contemporary thought and science. Her complex compositions consist of circles, ellipses and other geometrical abstractions, and just like the elements in the universe, the parts in her works are dynamic. Her art-kilims formulate aesthetic representations and models of multidimensional realities. The artist creates images that imply galaxies and planets in their macro-states, as well as particles within micro-spaces. In her oeuvre, she deals with micro and macro as interconnected spheres beyond our common visual perception and rational imagination. Instead of believing in one-dimensionality and linear world constructions, her rugs refer to pluralist notions of time, space and their relation to our reality. After graduating from the State Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul, Belkıs Balpınar worked for the State Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art as the curator of the Carpet Department. After that, she served as the Founding Director of the Vakıflar Carpet and Kilim Museum in Istanbul. Balpınar is a researcher and the author of several reference books and articles on traditional Turkish rugs and carpets. She continues to share her research with a community of scholars in the field. Since 1986, Balpınar has been creating her own art-kilims based on the traditional techniques of ancient Anatolia to express her own vision about the universe.