Yiğit Özen · Paintings

Yiğit Özen (b. 1994, Istanbul) is a painter, architect and XR designer. He works under the name decentralize*, and is the founder of Virtually Ever After and decentralize design. He paints without a preliminary drawing: acrylic, laid down quickly and left where it falls, so that the surface keeps the record of its own speed. Figures assemble out of clusters of cells and bubbles that never fully resolve into a body, while small toy-like figures look on from the edges. The paintings gathered here were made from 2018 onward in Istanbul, Milan and Luxembourg, alongside a continuing practice in spatial and virtual design.

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.

A transparent box, drawn from above in thin white lines, sits on top of everything beneath it. The lines are hard and continuous; the inside of the box, by contrast, is soft, scattered, organic. At the centre a large body is sunk into a yellow between saffron and scorched melon, and the most saturated zone of the canvas is here.

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.

The cigar is the one line segment that does not curve on a surface where every form curves; it descends forty five degrees to the left from the level of the mouth, cuts the left wing of the light-value collar and remains the only unit that overturns the frontally established order, because it has no counterpart in the right half.

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.

A butter-yellow column spilling from a mouth forms the spine of the painting; it begins beneath the chin, widens as it descends and reaches its broadest point in the bowl on the table.

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.

Winged blue forms are swept from upper left to lower right in a flock; this is the painting's main diagonal, and every unit within it faces the same way, toward the boat below.

penguin is not a friend, only a sinner, 2023

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

Sweeping curved brushstrokes fill the left two thirds of the square, building a tall rounded mass of pale yellow, off-white, olive green and teal, with pale pink patches at the upper left and on the left side below centre. Near the top, short horizontal strokes form two dark elongated marks side by side above a fan of vertical white strokes. Below, yellow arcs curve down both sides around a teal, grey and white core. Three yellow strokes reach toward the bottom edge, one at the lower left and two crossing near the centre. Dark olive brown fills the upper left corner; the right third is thin pale green grey.

Up at the narrowest part of the body two dark slits have gathered; the face is there, like a small knot fastened to the top of a mass far greater than itself. The great arcs descending below read as an embrace, and also as two taut wings guarding the chest; this double reading sets up the painting's central tension.

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.

Coral-red notches ranged inside an open mouth are the only hard place on the surface; everything around them is opened out with milk, and on a palette the black never visits, lilac, mint, mustard and baby blue rub against one another at the same pitch.

sin over black matter, 2019

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

A single figure in yellow, ochre and brown occupies the left third, bent forward so the torso folds over the legs and the head is not visible; one arm hangs down with splayed fingers touching the lower left, and a foot with spread toes rests along the bottom. A flat red triangle sits between the folded limbs at the centre of the body. Pale yellow and white edging runs along the rounded back, widest at its right side. The remaining two thirds are near black, with faint brown and grey streaks and a slightly lighter rectangle in the upper left corner.

The right two-thirds has turned into nothing, not even a ground, a halted darkness; the figure is at least twice as small as this void, the single light mass squeezed against the left edge. The body is folded in two, the back making an arch above and ending where the head should be in a lumpy tip, no face set upon it.

the assassination of the crow, 2019

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

Two figures divide a horizontal composition. On the left one lies on a blue rectangular bed seen from the foot end, arms stretched out sideways, knees raised as two large pale rounded masses, lower legs and feet extending onto pink flooring, head dark at the far end. On the right a larger figure in purple and brown crouches forward, its head a broad hooked wedge, both arms reaching down to the floor where the hands lie flat. Behind them a red wall carries a framed picture at top centre, a blue panel with a gold leaf form, and a window at upper right.

We look at the body on the blue divan from the feet; the knees push forward and swell into two large lumps, the body foreshortened backward, the head a dark patch so far off it nearly vanishes.

despite transgression, 2019

Acrylic on grey carton, 100 × 160 cm (39 ⅜ × 63 in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Filling the lower centre, a symmetrical orange figure built from ropy striated lines raises both arms outward in a wide loop; its head carries a green oval face with two lighter eye shapes and a yellow rayed crown, and concentric rings mark the chest and abdomen. Behind it a deep blue rectangle holds a gold rosette with radiating gold rays and a green leafed stalk descending from it. At upper right a white tufted form with crossed eyes and a stitched mouth hangs on thin orange diagonals. Dark red spans the top, brown the floor, with a coiled brown spiral at lower left.

An orange body drawn fibre by fibre, vein by vein, sits cross-legged in the middle of the board; the muscles are outside, no layer covering them over, no surface left to hide anything. Against this the face is closed, a green mask in place of the head and a rayed crown about it.

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.

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.

cute but unemployed cartoon figure, 2020

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

Against a flat red ground that covers the whole surface, a single upright figure rises through the centre. Its head, in the upper area, turns to the left and opens a long jaw showing a row of white triangular teeth. Fanning strokes of black, green, blue and yellow spread from the top of the head. The torso is built from overlapping rounded ovals in grey green, olive, white and black, edged with blue and yellow. Two legs descend to the lower edge, and a limb on the right ends in green and yellow lobes. A black brush mark sits in the top left corner.

The red ground is a single flat layer from end to end, leaving nothing to fill the space around the figure. In the middle a single-coloured field and a creature standing upon it. The unemployment of the title matches precisely this emptiness, a figure with no role in a scene with no set.

the family dinner after a night in jaïl, 2020

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

Green covers the entire ground, shifting from bright yellow green at the left to dark blue green near the edges. Three elongated pale forms occupy the field. The tallest, at the left, has a smooth rounded bald head with thin grey lines for features and a long white column of a body reaching the lower left corner. A smaller shape in the centre carries a curled white and lavender head above a dark navy shaft. The third, upper right, tapers downward through stacked blue green ovals. A teal curve crosses the lower centre. A dark blue mark sits at the top right.

Green has wrapped everything, three heads float within this colour; all three issue from the same mass and mix back into it. The one on the left is the lightest and most luminous, almost phosphorescent, its eye sockets hollowed.

duality of the angelic summarization, 2019

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

One frontal figure fills the surface, shown from the head down with no legs visible. Dark hair spikes outward above a pale yellow face with dark eye sockets, and a black green beard covers the lower head. Below, the body is a broad mass of pale yellow, white and blue in loose vertical strokes. The left arm ends in a pale brushy hand; the right arm lifts toward the right edge, ending in a dark grey hand with spread fingers. A deep blue arc surrounds the figure, going near black above and green at the sides. White scratched lines cross the bottom; a black mark sits top right.

Two arms are flung to either side and the two hands are not the same. The right one is darkened, almost burnt, its fingers turned to a claw and sharpened and hanging down; the left one is pale, furred, a soft heap close to a wing.

victim psycho-logique II : the peachy pharaoh connects with the chair, 2019

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

A tall pink and yellow body bends forward across the centre against a blue and violet ground, its torso marked by two concentric circles. One long arm extends upper left, ending in five thin black-tipped fingers. An olive green head with white eyes and a red striped mouth hangs at right beneath a ribbed orange cone. Two bird legs end in black clawed toes at the bottom. A red four-legged chair sits below the torso; a white outlined chair with a grid seat stands right. A pink line runs from the mouth to the chair. Pale ovoid clusters with X marks hang upper left.

A peach-coloured body stands doubled over on a diagonal running from lower left to upper right, its heaviest mass gathered right at the level of the belly, the legs that bear it thin and long; the borne is heavy, the bearer weak.

guarding holy mountains from malice, 2019

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

Inside a room with red angled side walls, a blue ceiling, a purple back wall and a yellow floor, a red figure balances horizontally on a thin black pole with a splayed tripod base at left. Its head, with yellow spiked hair, faces right and its hand holds a small striped object. A blue segmented tube sits along the left arm. A pale pink chair floats upside down at top centre. At right a large pink mound covered in brown strokes carries a green bush; three blue figures with X eyes stand in a row before it, arms linked, flanked by two blue crescents.

On the right three blue figures are ranged side by side, the same height, the same stance, arms interlocked; all three have a cross in their eye. Sightless guards have formed a chain.

good people helping bad ones (that’s why they’re bad too), 2019

Acrylic on black paper, 70 × 100 cm (27 ½ × 39 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

A large white and pale blue mass of overlapping rounded units fills the upper two thirds over a black support, crossed by orange and ochre streaks and short yellow-green dashes. Two pale discs sit near its top; a separate white ovoid marked with two orange crosses floats at the upper right corner. Three small red and orange figures stand in a row along the bottom edge, arms extended so their hands meet, each with a round head bearing two white X marks and short white strokes below. Two white crosses appear at the lower right. Bare black shows at every edge.

How many bodies there are within a white heap cannot be counted; an arm rises up, a leg hangs from beneath it, in the middle two rounds resembling a chest overlap and it is unclear whose limb ends where. The one who helps and the one helped, the one embraced and the one crushed, melt into the same mass.

amor cathedra, 2019

Acrylic on black paper, 70 × 100 cm (27 ½ × 39 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Lavender and pale pink forms build a many-limbed body that fills most of the sheet, outlined throughout in loose black brushstrokes. Near the centre two large circles hold dark dots, with a third ringed circle beside them and two more ringed circles higher left. Six pale pink and white segmented limbs radiate outward, each ending in small splayed fingers along the bottom and right. A black hatched triangular patch hangs below the central circles. A dark blue oval sits behind the lower half, black fills the upper area, and vertical gold strokes run down both side edges.

Two large round eyes are ringed with black rings, the pupils each a dot in the middle, turned directly toward us. For the first time in this series a figure does not shy from looking; the one looked at is now us.

burningman fast, 2019

Acrylic on black paper, 70 × 100 cm (27 ½ × 39 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Red covers nearly the whole surface. A large frontal face occupies the left half, its brow, eyes, nose and downturned mouth drawn in thin pale lines over red, grey and violet washes. A smaller face of the same construction sits at the upper right. Between them a pale hand with four fingers points upward, above thick vertical red bars. Rows of white and pink block capitals run across the lower right, partly overpainted and only partly legible, above a horizontal pink band. Dark navy and black fill the edges, with magenta and violet vertical strokes along the top right.

The left half is taken up by a single face; horizontal scratches on its brow, its eyes half closed, its mouth drawn down. At upper right a second, half-scale, paler face.

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.

morbid forebodings triggered by childish landscape, 2019

Acrylic on grey carton, 73 × 80 cm (28 ¾ × 31 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Vertical strokes of ultramarine blue, pink and violet fill the background, with lighter blue along the bottom edge and bare canvas showing at the left and top margins. At centre a large yellow-green form built from overlapping rounded lobes and thick black outlines crouches with legs folded to the lower left. A small head with a pink rounded snout and black spiky strokes sits at its top. Its right limb reaches to the upper right, ending near a bushy yellow-green mass on a dark vertical stalk. Three clusters of stiff yellow-green spikes occupy the lower left, lower centre and lower right. Orange patches show at mid-left.

In the upper right corner stands a tree straight out of a child's notebook: a thin stick of a trunk, a round and puffy greenery at its top. That tree we were all made to draw at school, the most innocent sign saying the world is safe.

wings of abyss, 2019

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

Three long necks rise from a single blue body at centre right, each ending in a head with a long pointed beak and a white feathered crest. The body carries five concentric circle and spiral motifs in blue, white and dark violet, and stands on thin pale legs with splayed claw-like feet along the bottom edge. Upper left, on a dark maroon field, a pink form made of stacked circles hangs inverted, with spread fingers at top and bottom and two crossed marks near its lower end. The lower third is salmon pink, crossed by thin drawn lines forming trestle shapes.

Three long beaks rise from the same blue body on separate necks, each looking a different way, their crests flung back at the top.

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.

baby rights 101, 2020

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

Overlapping grey and black bodies spread across the full width against a pale blue-white ground. At left a figure with a white ovoid head, hollow eyes and a small dark mouth raises one hand with spread fingers. At right another ovoid white head with an open mouth tops a body whose two arms lift, fingers spread. Between them a large dark torso lies horizontally, legs extending to the lower right and an arm crossing the upper centre. Red outlined circles of varying size cluster at the middle around a red oval. Thin red diagonal lines run corner to corner. Black crosses mark several chests.

Right in the middle, between two dark bodies, a small infant is drawn with a thin red line: a body of rings come side by side, a pair of eyes, a single horizontal notch of a mouth. It stands like a diagram laid onto the flesh afterward, staying upon the paint without mixing into it.

see u in the other side, 2019

Acrylic on paper, 59.4 × 42 cm (23 ⅜ × 16 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Two interlocking figures built from yellow, orange and cream limbs fill the left two thirds, outlined in blue and red over an ultramarine ground that shifts to lighter cyan below a black horizontal bar. A round pale head with a red band across the eyes sits near the top centre. Dark red discs are scattered at upper left and along the lower edge, and a black diagonal runs up from the lower left corner. The right third is off-white, covered with blue and orange rectangles, arcs and short strokes crossed by thin black diagonal lines. A red circle sits at its lower left.

A vertical border divides the paper in a three-to-two ratio, and the amount of paint carried to each side is the exact opposite of the other.

society screwing balance, 2019

Acrylic on paper, 42 × 59.4 cm (16 ½ × 23 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Black paint covers a vertical sheet, leaving raw white paper along all four edges. Near the top, two white squares hold green patches crossed by red lines, and between them a red stick figure with raised arms stands beside a grey loop. At upper right a white outlined figure with crossed eyes and a circled chest is drawn at the end of a long red vertical line. A large red and white head with wide eyes and open mouth occupies the left middle above a green horizontal band. Small red stick figures cluster across the lower third beside a green ladder and a red fan of strokes.

Red stick figures multiply below, more than fifteen, all from a single mould: a round, a vertical line, four sticks. A form repeated this much ceases to be a person and becomes a sign; among them none sees another, some hold hands, some are alone.

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.

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.

How to materialize your loneliness by using an animal in somewhere concrete or technologic, 2019

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

A large frontal head fills the left half of a horizontal canvas, drawn in ochre, orange and pink, with wide almond eyes under black brows, a yellow nose, blue and red lips and pink streaks down both cheeks. The right half holds a blue upright form topped by a dark disc with a yellow curved mark, its centre a black and green panel crossed by red and white bars. A red rayed circle with a small green face sits at top centre. Yellow, green and purple scribbles fill the ground, and block capitals run along the top, down the centre and vertically at the right edge.

On the brow of the enormous head at the left a third eye is opened, and from the two eyes below thick marks descend toward the cheeks. It resembles weeping, but whether what runs is liquid or a scratched-in scratch is unclear.

Century of 0 & 1 / Transhumanism, 2019

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

Hands are raised into the air, palms turned to the front; the oldest sign of surrender and of execution scenes waits on the pink body at the left edge, while opposite, a yellow body in profile, mid-step, extends its arms forward and binds itself to the weapon in its hand.

remixed execution of lucid drowning, 2019

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

Overlapping rounded masses in pale green fill the centre and form a reclining body whose limb reaches down to a hand at the lower edge. An oval pink and blue face with two large eyes sits in the upper left. Pink and green feathered forms spread across the top. At right a dark green head with bared teeth rises above two large green spheres set on a black mass, with green legs below. A bright blue band runs along the bottom, white and pale grey cover the left, and lavender fills the upper right corner.

A greenish body is spread horizontally and no border is drawn between it and the blue beneath; where the body ends and where the water begins is unclear. The arms are open, the legs hang, no trace of resistance. Whether it is sinking or swimming, the painting does not say.

bacchus 2, 2020

Acrylic on paper, 42 × 59.4 cm (16 ½ × 23 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

One seated figure occupies the centre against a pale blue-white ground. Its large head, ringed by a thick black contour, is patched with blue, green, yellow and pink, with one eye at the right and a row of teeth in a wide mouth. Red and black looping strokes radiate from the head to the upper corners. The torso and legs are built from rounded units in ochre, pink, blue-grey, mauve and olive. At lower right a wide goblet carries a dark spiral in a red bowl, with blue rounded shapes and a blue hand beside it, above red fruit and red strokes along the bottom.

The inside of the stemmed goblet on the right opens not onto a drink but onto a dark pit spiralling down; the distance between drinking and being swallowed closes. The goblet is almost as large as the head, its thin long stem not looking able to carry a bowl of this breadth, ready to topple and no one holding it.

The On-Top Ruler, 2020

Acrylic on thick paper, 29.7 × 42 cm (11 ¾ × 16 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Stacked rounded forms build a tall mass across the upper two thirds of bare white paper. A yellow-green dome caps the top, streaked with red, orange and black scribbles. Beneath it a black oval, a blue-grey disc and a blue oval sit toward the left, next to a yellow circle carrying black bar-like marks. Green and pale green curves fill the right side, edged with red and pink. At lower left a magenta oval encloses a pale yellow area with two dark dots and a dark mouth mark. Grey pencil strokes occupy the top right corner.

A tower is built of heads heaped one on another and the topmost is the largest of all; between them there is no shoulder or neck, the heads seated directly one upon another.

two woman figures sitting at the back of the canvas, 2019

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

Charcoal drawing on off-white canvas, split into two panels by a vertical wooden stretcher bar, with further bars framing the outer edges and staples running down the left and right sides. In the left panel a nude figure sits on a straight-backed chair in three-quarter view, one arm raised to the head, one leg stretched out to the left, the other bent under the seat. In the right panel a second nude figure stands frontally, arms drawn behind the back, knees bent, feet flat and broad. Both are worked in dense hatching with heavy dark contour lines.

The stretcher bars and the central rail are visible just as they are; two female figures are drawn in charcoal on the unpainted back face of the canvas, that is the side normally left turned to the wall.

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Yiğit Özen