Welcome. Hoşgeldin. Whatta Gwan.

+ The site has been newly renovated thanks to the help of my friend Gary Fogelson. Please stay posted for updates.

+ I will be showing some work at The Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey for a group exhibition entitled “Octet”. The opening will be on the 12th of August, 2009. Also on the 18th I will be speaking on a panel discussion in conjunction with the museum’s show presenting my work alongside other Turkish-American artists, Peter Hristoff and Elif Uras.
More info here.

+ Participated in Jordin Isip’s “Dimebag 3″ exhibition at GR Gallery. Each artist was given a small ziploc bag resembling a drug bag. I filled mine with oregano. It is on sale for 10 dollars.

Contact me or stop by the studio for a poster from my Mixed Greens Gallery installation designed by my studiomates Fogelson-Lubliner

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC01

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC02

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC03

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC04

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC05

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC06

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC07 •

2008
Serigraph ink on found comic book, 10 x 6 3/4 inches
RRC08

Pitbulls hold high prominence in the settings of urban culture. Biased views often make them out to be violent and hazardous, so much that the governments of the world have started to ban the breed in their countries.

 
Pitbulls are icons of my neighborhood. They appear in music videos and album covers in rap, as tattoos, in jewelry design, and clothing graphics,yet these misunderstood animals are ostracized by the rest of society.

2007, Silkscreened and photocopied

Edition of 100, 1 AP

24 pgs

MC Hammer was a rapper known for his dramatic rise to and fall from success.
These circumstances eventually forced him to claim bankruptcy. Upon doing so
it was discovered that Hammer had over 10,000 outfits in his wardrobe.
2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″
CP24

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″
CP22

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″
CP23

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″
CP26

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″
CP25

As a kid, I would collect trading cards. I was drawn to cards with images of superheroes and villains, cartoons, fantasy art, and golden-era rappers. Recently completing a collection of trading cards with images of my rap idols, I felt the need to now intervene and engage in an act of purification.

Blades are a tool for violence in the streets that require you to be intimately close to your victim. Cutting the chains away from these ghetto icons I found that I was disconnecting them from their symbols of success. The expressions on their faces, even the prestige of their outfits all started to break down. Without their chains, they layed on my cutting board appearing victimized.

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP10

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP20

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP21

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP19

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP18

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP17

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP16

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP15

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP13

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP12

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP11

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP09

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP08

2007

Offset lithograph on paper, 6″ x 7″

CP07

2005

Flatbush Brooklyn native Soner Ön compiles a visual ode to the “Boro of Kings” by employing photocopied collages of old school computer graphics and photographs. Tongue-in-cheek aristocratic overtones are evoked through images of falling coins, royally minded fast-food joints, and Country Club Malt Liquor labels. Appearances by the cartoon characters Mr. Burns and Richie Rich as African-Americans complete the themes of urban royalty and riches. -Printed Matter

2005

Silkscreen and photocopy

Edition of 50, 21 pgs

In my youth when we lived across from a crackhouse in Brooklyn during the 80’s crack boom.
This series of drawings in this zine are part of a larger body of work focusing on crack addicts
and my childhood confrontations with them. My later exposure to hollywood zombies would
always parallel in my mind with these tragic inhabitants of my childhood environment.

Scrolls and plates in my family’s household embellished with Arabic calligraphy  were my earliest memories of written language. The marks on these studies evoke fragments of those writings I couldn’t understand yet found beautiful. Working to embrace humility and ignorance I did these with a Turkish calligraphy pen used to write the old Turkish language which very few can read or understand now. Upon forming the Turkish Republic, the Turks modernized their written language to the Latin alphabet. In the the end the nation, though now more likely to assimilate with the rest of the world, became a people who cannot read their nation’s archives and history. 

GS413

2008

GS412

2008

GS411

2008

GS411

2008

GS410

2008

GS409

2008

GS408

2008

GS407

2008

GS406

2008

GS405

2008

GS403

2008

GS402

2008

GS401

2008

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 24″ x 20″

BW22

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 24″ x 20″

BW21

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 24″ x 20″

BW20

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 24″ x 20″

BW19

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 24″ x 20″

BW18

2005

Enamel on aluminium, 24″ x 20″

BW08

2005

Enamel on aluminium, 24″ x 20″

BW07

Detail of BW07

For this project I wanted to choose a medium that can easily be erased. I encourage the owners of these

drawings to delete as many dollars as they want.

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD14

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD13

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD12

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD11

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD10

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD09

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD08

2007

Graphite on paper, 9″ x 7.5″

BWD07

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB19

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB18

Detail of CB18

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB17

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB16

2007

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB15

2005

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB11

2005

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB10

2005

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB09

2005

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB08

2005

Enamel on aluminium, 20″ x 24″

CB07

“Like music, the dozens has lyrics, cadence, and rhythm. The words might seem rough, but you can’t take them literally. Similar to the blues, the dozens is a conversation of pain into joy. This battle of words is a song of survival. The dozens is still about maintaining your cool. The point is not to appear emotionally vulnerable. Talking fast and talking smooth are all part of letting them know you’re not scared. The game is a sort of ritualized entertainment. You can hear it today from kids. Influenced by hip-hop, the rhyming phrases of the early dozens have become one-line comedic insults. 

Don’t think this form of expression is negative. It’s a skill that requires verbal creativity, memory, humor, and the chops to deliver your lines. Playing the dozens requires a sophisticated mind. It’s not like expressing yourself with a gun, which requires no wit, no strength, no power. The dozens is a style of humor that enables us to deal with the pain in our lives. It’s a serious art and tradition. It’s a part of our folklore.”

-Excerpt from Quincy James’ foreword in SNAPS by James Perselay (Quill Press 1994) 

Untitled (From Folklore Series), 2007

Digital file, 5″ x 6.5″

YMF03 

Untitled (From Folklore Series), 2007

Digital file, 5″ x 6.5″

YMF02

Untitled (From Folklore Series), 2007

Digital file, 5″ x 6.5″

YMF03

Untitled (From Folklore Series), 2007

Digital file, 5″ x 6.5″

YMK01

Untitled (From Folklore Series), 2007

Digital file, 5″ x 6.5″

YMK02

Untitled (From Folklore Series), 2007

Digital file, 5″ x 6.5″

YMK03

Found on the sidewalk in front of my apartment building on Flatbush Avenue:

Also found on the sidewalk in front of my apartment building on Flatbush Avenue:

Found on Flatbush Avenue in front of the brand new “Triangle Junction Mall/TARGET shopping
complex, 1.5 blocks away from my apartment building:

Cereal from the 99¢ Store, three blocks away: