The Others
Meet the Others: Sait Mingü
The Game Changers. The Rule Breakers. The Innovators. Discover some of the fantastic emerging talent showcasing their work at The Other Art Fair.
Sait Mingü is a contemporary, expressionist figurative artist who works in acrylics, ecoline and digital. By combining handmade drawings and paintings with possibilities offered by technology, Sait blends illustrative elements with conventional painting and works on paper, thus creating an effective language of his own through his use of traditional techniques and new media.
Intertwining expressionist elements –which have become more prominent in his most recent works– and quasi-fictional narrative images, Sait creates works that establish an intense perceptional connection with the audience.
Q&A with the Artist
Tell us about who you are and what you do. What is your background?
I am an award winning, contemporary, expressionist figurative artist working in acrylics, ecoline and lately in digital. I was graduated from the Faculty of Painting from Mimar Sinan University Istanbul. I worked as Art Director at Guzel Sanatlar / Saatchi&Saatchi Agency between 2001 – 2006, since 2006, has been working as a full time artist.
What are the major themes you pursue in your work?
The works are based on the relational dynamics human establishes with his social, natural and physical surroundings. In addition to being autonomous, human becomes a significant part of the whole by means of both his intellectual and corporal qualities. And his becoming of a subject depends on the conflictual relationship he establishes with the whole. Focusing on this “situation”, I pick “moments” of separation and union that individuals experience in their inner worlds, and I convey the resulting emotional state with my images.
How did you first get interested in your medium and what draws you to it specifically?
Technology is always my passion and combining it with my traditional background is what makes my artworks unique. I create large-scale painting portraits that are both vibrant and full of contrast inspired by observing different types of people thriving together. Whether I paint the human body or portraits, It’s a combination of conflicting and complementary internal movements; excitement, anxiety, pleasure, vertigo, attraction, doubt and acceleration.
How has your style and practice changed over the years?
By combining handmade drawings and paintings with possibilities offered by technology, I blend illustrative elements with conventional painting and works on paper, thus creating an effective language of my own through my use of traditional techniques and new media. Intertwining expressionist elements –which have become more prominent in my most recent works– and quasi-fictional narrative images, I create works which establish an intense perceptional connection with their audience. Ranging from optimistic to bleak, these works are impressive visual designs with their use of colors and their dynamic linear compositions, and they radiate a graceful and poetic sensibility.
Can you walk us through your process? How long do you spend on one work? How do you know when it’s finished?
Well it is never ending story. It never finishes until you stop doing it. Each work has its own language. If I were able to transfer this language in words, I would not paint, I would write 🙂 I combine fleeting, beautiful and yet surreal snapshots that are freed from ordinary and routine life. I emphasis the opposite of this daily routine with a reality filled with fantasy, a love of nature and the vivid. Through the use of techniques, the colours I use are profound and highlight the overwhelming emotions and those fluctuations of his inner world.
The strong contours of the figural elements are lively and at the same time blurred. The intensity of emotions becomes apparent through the use of colour and blend with the transparent, rhythmic lines of calm and simplicity that meet with an emptiness, loneliness and existential angst-turned-melancholy. I place value on form and composition that the viewer finds in the combination of reality and dream, geometric fiction and a poetic atmosphere. Drawing, painting and new media come together in my works and my signature technique.
What series or project are you working on next?
I am working unexpected worlds. I combine fleeting, beautiful and yet surreal snapshots that are freed from ordinary and routine life.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBFG-74AEpX/
What is the best advice given to you as an artist?
Practice, and all is coming. Inspired by everything surrounds you, even the smallest details could suprise you and have an impact on your artwork you would have never known. And most importantly; always follow the opportunities internationally.
Shop artwork by Sait and other trailblazing artists at The Other Art Fair’s Online Studios.
Introducing The Other Art Fair Online Studios, a new online platform offering art lovers around the world access to over 800 Fair artists. The Online Studios will keep our community feeling inspired, engaged, and continue to spread joy through art.
