Serkan Ozkaya is a Turkish-American conceptual artist whose work deals with topics of appropriation and reproduction. He typically operates outside of traditional art spaces and often makes multiple versions of even his own work including his most noted work David. Dear Sir or Madam (1996–2009) is a collection of letters and other correspondences between Özkaya and cultural institutions, dignitaries, and curators. In 2000, Özkaya collected roughly 30,000 slides from artists, galleries, and institutions and showed them on one of the largest galleries in the main pedestrian street in Istanbul, at the Kazim Taskent Art Gallery. What A Museum Should Really Look Like (Large Glass) presented a giant mosaic of individual images. Atlas (2011) is a contribution to a walking museum wherein Özkaya constructed a rock to be strapped to the curator's back and promenaded daily throughout the streets of New York. The idea was to make "the museum" itself wander around the streets of the city with Özkaya's new piece, a giant rock. Radisson/Picasso (2012), a pair of Radisson Hotel matchboxes with the text of one of which has been changed to read "Picasso" instead of "Radisson" and was displayed alongside the original.
Portrait by Giorgia Fanelli
