Lara Kamhi was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1987. She graduated from Istanbul Bilgi University in 2011. She studied theater at University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle in 2005-2006; film and television at American University of Paris in 2006-2007. She obtained her Master′s degree in Media Arts at Slade School of Fine Art in 2013.
Lara Kamhi has participated in many group exhibitions with her media and installation art works in London, Berlin, New York, Istanbul, Geneva, Jerusalem, Tenerife and York. She has attended international art fairs such as Contemporary Istanbul (2015) and The Other Art Fair in London (2012 and 2014). Kamhi is co-founder and co-director of the gallery Prizmaspace. She also works as a production, lighting designer and music video director. Kamhi is a winner of the Julian Sullivan Award for her achievement in Fine Art and Media.
About Lara Kamhi’s Art Style
By transgressing the borders between fields of visual story-telling, sound, light art and site-specific installation, Lara Kamhi creates and captures immersive image spaces, soundscapes and narratives in which she explores and investigates the confusing conflict between appearance and truth. Since 2009, Kamhi has exhibited, performed and screened her works in galleries, museums, festivals and public spaces, nationally and internationally – while also working as a music video director and visual, stage & lighting designer for plays, videos, concerts and events.
“My practice and research draw from an interest to the subjective nature of perception and reality. It mainly evolves from a curiosity towards the manipulative yet transient essence of the visible, from which derives an organic relation to colour, form and light. Questioning the world’s apparent factuality and the reality principle, I investigate forms of harmony and rupture. Capturing and liberating, splitting and building images, materials and spaces onto each other, I use intuition and technology as a way to experiment with ideas deriving from daily visual contemplations and consumptions.
My research questions the ‘Split’ between two distinctive worlds in which we inhabit; The exterior in relation to the interior, the exposed in relation to the intimate and the revealed in relation to the hidden. Driven from this duality, my practice leads parallel strands; With a process-based approach to image-making, I intuitively process captured visual information, and with an experience-based approach to it’s exhibition, I aim to create immersive image spaces in which viewers can penetrate, thus become interiorized.”
Exhibitions
Solo exhibition
2011, “Split. Inner / Outer,” Atelier Çukurcuma, Istanbul
Duo exhibitions
2015 and 2014, “Moving Images I & II,” PRIZMASPACE, Istanbul (with Eli Kasavi)
2013,”Merging & Emerging,” Gallery Heritage, Geneva (with Melda Kamhi Kosif)
2013, “Atelier by Absolut,” Unter, Istanbul (with Erdem Dilbaz)
Group exhibitions
2015, “Istanbul Light Festival,” Zorlu Center, Istanbul
2015, “Wavelenghts – Europalia,” International Arts Festival, Les Halles, Brussels
2015, “Light is there where we are not,” Cultural Transit Foundation, Yekaterinburg
2015, “BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer),” Pera Museum, Istanbul
2015, “Galaxias Maculatus,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Valdivia
2015, “Possibilities and Choices,” Mixer Gallery, Istanbul
2014, “Where am I ?,” Kare Art Gallery, Istanbul
2013, “Parallel Threads,” Ekav Art Gallery, Istanbul
2013, “Creatives Rising,” 26-19 Jackson Ave. Long Island, New York
2013, “Cinema as Object,” Slade Research Center, London
2013, “The Story of the Creative,” Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York
2012, “Interspace,” Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem
2012, “Beyond the Material World,” Bar Lane Studios, York
2012, “Ten Diez Movement,” Magma, Tenerife
2012, “Untitled,” Pilevneli Project, Istanbul
2012, “And You, What Do You Worship?,” Crypt Gallery, London
2012, “Seeing in The City,” Guildhall Art Gallery, London
2012, “MADE Mobility for Digital Arts in Europe,” Istanbul
2011, “City Lights,” DomAquaree, Berlin
2011, “Affective State,” Tophane – i Amire, Istanbul
2011, “Update!,” Hayaka Artı Art Cente, Istanbul
2011, “Life is Elsewhere,” The Crypt Gallery, London
2011, “Up and Coming,” Artium Modern Gallery, Istanbul
Visits: 158
