Yiğit Özen · Paintings

Selected paintings by Yiğit Özen

Yiğit Özen was born in 1994 in Istanbul and trained as an architect. The paintings date from 2018 onward and were made across Istanbul, Milan and Luxembourg. Alongside the paintings, Özen works as an XR and spatial web designer, and is the founder of decentralize design in Milan and Virtually Ever After in Luxembourg. That practice has been shown at Kunsthalle Zürich, the Royal Institution in London, Holy Art Gallery London and Art Basel Miami.

7 fam board game, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 100 × 80 cm (39 ⅜ × 31 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Two figures face each other across a chequered board turned corner on, its near corner meeting just above the bottom edge. At left a large head fills the upper corner, built from overlapping rounded lobes in rose, coral, mauve and ochre with no eyes and no mouth, one white and one yellow ring drawn on it and a pale tapering tube hanging from its underside; below, a dark aubergine jacket with a wide pale lapel line and a long gold wedge down its lower left runs to the bottom edge. At right a smaller head in orange and grey scowls under a dark red cap, the brows knotted and the eyes narrowed, above a wine red cloak with a white collar from which two thin white cords hang into the pieces below. On the board, pink cones each under its own translucent wrapping stand clear of one another; pale blue round heads, some with crossed eyes and some with dots, a small mouth under each, are stacked two and three high and run together into clumps, the densest of them with pointed ears at the right edge of the board. The two sides mix across the middle of the board and nothing stands off it. Behind, a near black opening with softly curved edges runs from the top edge down between two flat cyan fields, and a yellow line, a navy band and a warm plane cross the middle of the picture. A pale signature sits in the lower right corner.

One side stands wrapped, each cone clear of the next; the other is stacked two and three high until one head cannot be told from another. Those are the two ways of being a family available on this board, and the game is between them. Nothing has been taken off, so whatever is being played is not the kind of game that ends with a winner. The larger of the two heads has neither eyes nor a mouth; the small one opposite it is all glare.

7 fam board game

Virgil on Virtual Cage (final_final-finalV9), 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 80 × 100 cm (31 ½ × 39 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

A seated figure fills the centre in orange and yellow drapery, one hand raised to the cheek, beneath a long white wig falling past the shoulders. Thin white lines draw an open box around it, its flat grey ceiling spanning the top of the canvas and its uprights running down to the lower edge. Behind, the ground is black and deep red, with a pink rectangular panel at upper left holding a pale outlined chair. The lower two thirds are a dense bed of coral, pink and red strokes. At left a small pale figure with curly hair sits in lavender and cream; at right a larger blonde figure in a pink and grey robe turns inward, a wide pink wing behind its shoulder. Below the centre a smaller figure with grey hair lies back with its legs raised. A dark signature mark sits in the lower right corner.

The cage is drawn, not built. A few white lines lay a ceiling across the top and drop two uprights, then stop two fifths of the way down, so nothing is actually shut in. Underneath, the bodies are soft, pressed from the tube and scratched while still wet, and not one of them looks at the lines. The title carries a guide out of the underworld and a file name that has been saved as final nine times over: two promises of an ending, made by something that has none.

Virgil on Virtual Cage (final_final-finalV9)

gary grills cooper, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 55 × 75 cm (21 ⅝ × 29 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Centred and frontal, one figure fills the height, its torso and arms built from overlapping rounded balls in purple, olive green and grey white. Tufted brown hair frames a broad tan face with heavy brows; a brown cigar angles down from the mouth. A pale lavender collar opens at the neck. Tan forearms cross at the waist, the hand at right holding a thin dark rod. White shorts and pale tan legs continue to the bottom edge. The ground is orange above and paler yellow below, with turquoise streaks across mid height. A black oval pan heaped with red, orange and olive marks fills the lower left corner.

“Whatever happened to Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type. That was an American. He wasn’t in touch with his feelings. He just did what he had to do.”

The quotation mourns a man who did not have to know what he felt. The painting gives him back as a stack of coloured balls with a cigar in it, the one straight line in the picture falling from his mouth, and sets a pan of coals at his feet. Grilling is the only thing he is doing, and the title has already broken his name in half to fit the joke.

gary grills cooper

walls of perception, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 50 × 70 cm (19 ⅝ × 27 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

A seated form fills the centre. Above it sits a wide-brimmed cream hat with a purple band. Beneath the brim, a dark grey rounded mass carries pink and red vertical marks, and a blue triangular shape hangs below. From this point a broad stream of lumpy yellow grains pours down into a pale round bowl. A charcoal jacket with two curved lapels frames the body against a dark rounded chair back. The upper background is deep teal green; a white band runs along the bottom. A red octagonal cloth covers the lower table, a lavender flower stands at right, and a grey beaded utensil rests at lower right.

What comes out of the mouth is given weight. A column of grains, piled thick enough to cast its own shadow, falls from under the brim into a bowl and is set on the table like something to be eaten. The wall the title names is not behind the figure, it is worn: the brim takes the eyes out of the picture, so the one who is talking cannot be seen to be looking.

walls of perception

articulo attack on mandarin, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 80 × 80 cm (31 ½ × 31 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Deep black fills most of the surface. Numerous elongated bird-like forms painted in blue and white, each with a long beak and streaked wings, scatter across the upper two thirds. Near the centre a thin blue-white humanoid figure grips a vertical pole. Along a horizontal grey boat in the lower third stand a row of small rounded figures built from stacked circles, each marked with an X for eyes. The word STUGOTZ appears in blue letters on the boat's side. At left rises a pale grey triangular peak. Two white anchors and a chain sit at lower left, and thin diagonal lines extend into dark blue water along the bottom.

The flock is already committed, every wing swept the same way down the diagonal, and the row of figures standing along the boat does not look up. Each of them has an X where the eyes should be, so there is nobody aboard to see it coming. The anchor lies in the corner with its chain beside it. One thin figure at the centre holds the pole, which is the only act in the painting, and it cannot be told whether it is steering or holding on.

articulo attack on mandarin

s(t)lop, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 55 × 75 cm (21 ⅝ × 29 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Across the left half of a tall surface stands a large bird-like form built from overlapping rounded units in lavender, pale turquoise, yellow and white, with a rounded head at upper left, a long tapering beak extending to the right, a wing of curved strokes below it, and two narrow legs reaching the bottom edge. A row of red zigzag marks runs horizontally at centre. Upper right holds a white rectangle with purple vertical bars; below it a yellow outlined rectangle contains a white head with two eye shapes. Vertical strokes of ochre, blue, pink and turquoise fill the background.

Nothing here separates. The bird and the wall it stands against are made of the same milk, more than one colour on the brush at once, and no contour is ever drawn around the body. The single hard place on the surface is the row of red notches ranged inside the open mouth. Two right angles at the right, a framed panel and a head shut in a box, are all the order there is, and the title slides between what is fed and what would stop it.

s(t)lop

ciao capo, sono squalo, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 65 × 90 cm (25 ⅝ × 35 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

The pointed teeth ranged in the open mouth of the figure on the left stand as the one sharp edge within the softness of the rest of the painting. The title gives this mouth a sentence: hello boss, I am the shark. An Italian and overly cheerful greeting, the opening line of someone introducing himself as a predator.

ciao capo, sono squalo

cellular spleens, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 100 × 120 cm (39 ⅜ × 47 ¼ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

A bulky standing form occupies the centre, assembled from large overlapping ovals in dusky blue, mauve, pale pink, deep red and grey green, all edged in black. Its upper section is a cluster of small loops in red, yellow, green and blue, topped by green and black vertical strokes that fan out across the top edge. One thin arm reaches left to a small dark tip; a curved tubular shape hangs at the right. The form stands on a long dark red body with two black wheels along the bottom. Streaked grey and white fill the background. A black signature mark sits in the lower right corner.

Below lies a long, flat car, a thick black wheel at each end; it fills the whole breadth of the painting and a large body stands upon it. One foot sunk into the middle of the bodywork, the other braced on its edge, no balance, the stance liable to break at any moment.

cellular spleens

caprocorn sister: war, plague, earthquake, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 65 × 90 cm (25 ⅝ × 35 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Against a black ground scored with fine vertical lines, three figures occupy the frame. At left a kneeling figure with a blue and green face, yellow patches around the eyes and an open red mouth rests one knee on a green oval. In the centre a taller standing figure leans a forearm on a thin vertical pole; its head is a plain white oval with grey hair, and its body is streaked with grey, red and blue. At right, a third figure stands with its back turned, its buttocks painted as concentric blue and red rings. A dark green box with yellow-green edges sits at lower centre.

In the middle of the lower half stands a dark green chest, its edges combed in lines, its lid closed; while everything around it is crooked, it is the one geometric unit. Three bodies are ranged around it and the title lists three catastrophes side by side: war, plague, earthquake.

caprocorn sister: war, plague, earthquake

When the Darkness surrounds, be among those who burn the Great Fire, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 65 × 90 cm (25 ⅝ × 35 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Pink and red rounded lobes build a single figure that fills most of a vertical canvas, streaked with white and orange. The rounded head carries two large oval eyes under heavy brows and a small mouth. One arm reaches to the right edge, ending in a splayed hand with separated fingers; the other drops along the left side. Both legs bend, and two long flat feet spread across the bottom. The ground behind is brushed in dark green, brown and black, with pale peach and a small blue patch at upper left and ochre at the right edge. White marks sit at lower right.

The hand at the end of the arm reaching to the right is left unable to become a fist, the fingers not quite closed; it could be about to strike, it could be reached out to hold something. The title says be one of those who light the great fire, but the palm is empty, nothing burning is visible in the painting.

When the Darkness surrounds, be among those who burn the Great Fire

viperella, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 50 × 70 cm (19 ⅝ × 27 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

A dark band closes in from all four sides and leaves within it a light green rectangle between lemon and pistachio, setting up a second frame inside the painting. The figure is placed right in the middle of that bright field, standing in profile.

viperella

il sbagliato di rompipalle, 2019

Acrylic on canvas, 65 × 90 cm (25 ⅝ × 35 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Green paint covers the whole background in sweeping strokes. Upper left holds a pink, yellow and dark purple head-like mass with one large sunken eye and a row of white teeth-shaped marks. Upper right, a second rounded head in yellow, white and purple carries two dark curved eyes and a mouth. Below, a broad torso is built from overlapping rounded lobes in mauve, yellow, ochre and white, a circular ochre patch on the left breast, a dark oval on the right. Brown and purple streaked fan shapes fill the lower third. A narrow yellow band with hanging strands runs down the left edge.

A single neck carries two heads at once; the left one draws near a skull with its teeth ranged in rows while the right one is round, its eyes closed, absent. One dead, one asleep; the shared body binds the two to the same punishment. In the Janus tradition the two faces divide time, one looking to the past, one to the future.

il sbagliato di rompipalle

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