Can Yağız Talks Upcoming Art Show, Inspiration and Art Career

Conceptual artist Can Yağız is set to present his artworks at the upcoming group exhibition, “Conceptual Romance,” opening at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (ECOCA) on September 14, 2025. The exhibition, curated by Jared Quinton, Emily Hall Tremaine Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, marks ECOCA's 10-year anniversary and will feature 23 select artists, including Yağız.

Yağız, who received his MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2023 and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2018, is known for his introspective and philosophically charged practice. His work often delves into the fragility of self, the nature of memory, and the tangible marks left by experience.

“Conceptual Romance” aims to engage both intellect and emotion, a theme deeply resonant with Yağız’s approach. Curator Jared Quinton notes, “The 23 artists featured in Conceptual Romance create propositions that engage our intellects and emotions at the same time. They use materials, images, and formats that look and feel familiar, yet the works retain an air of mystery, seducing viewers into the realm between objects and ideas.”

At the core of Yağız's artistic philosophy is an exploration of dissolution and residue. He describes his printmaking process as a deliberate act of erosion: “I often print without cleaning the plate, with each repeat, the image gets blurrier, more dissolved. The body, if it appears at all, dissolves too. It stops being an image but more of a residue.” For Yağız, this isn't just a formal technique; it's a statement on existence itself: “I think bodies are residues.”

This focus on trace extends to his understanding of memory and self. “Self is mostly fragments that contradict each other,” Yağız explains. “Maybe I can’t reason with myself on why I would do something, or the memories don't add up or make sense.” He finds clarity in the undeniable physicality of things: “That might be why I often mention residues or stains and focus on materiality of things, because material always does add up, this got stained because something was spilled on it, or this has skid marks because a bicycle tried to brake there.”

These material marks, he emphasizes, “render progression which is also important, that there’s been an event, and now there’s leftover marks from it.”

Yağız also draws a compelling parallel between photography and printmaking, noting how even a blurry photograph still inherently points to something real. "Even if an image is a blur and you can’t tell what you’re looking at, and all you can decipher is a blob you still know it’s pointed at something," he says. "Print has a similar dynamic, and running the same print without any kind of reset breaks the image down." He uses specific types of crayons in his printmaking, highlighting the medium's role in the transformative process.

The artist's relationship with time and accumulation is also central. Yağız admits to keeping everything, including newspapers, which he describes as a “torrent that easily takes over a room.” He sees these “boulders of newspaper” as a "tangible, physical, almost personified form” of fatigue and the inability to keep up with the relentless flow of time and information.

This personal history extends to his childhood, recalling how his grandmother would send him newspaper clippings, fostering an early appreciation for collage – “It feels natural to collage with.” He finds a poignant marker of time in the simple act of noticing stacked newspapers: “It’s so easy to feel at a standstill, being in a time that refuses to move forward. Then you notice a stack of four newspapers on the doormat and realize, it’s been four days.”

Among the four works Yağız will be showing at “Conceptual Romance” is a video titled "Kettle." He describes it as "a looped 9-minute video whereby end of the loop, most of the water evaporates so the kettle gets silent and periodically gets whispery, and dry heaves as it continues to be full blast on the stove,” a metaphor that echoes his themes of exhaustion, transformation, and the subtle marks of endurance.

Yağız cites Dieter Roth’s work as an inspiration, particularly Roth's composite objects and the use of materials like chocolate that exist on “borrowed time.” He appreciates how Roth moved "away from book but still with concerns of book, so it’s more about making a composite object." This influence is evident in Yağız’s own focus on the impermanence and transformation of materials.

Ultimately, Yağız views his artworks as “placeholders.” “They let me interact with myself more indirectly and I find it easier that way,” he reflects, emphasizing the deeply personal yet abstract nature of his creations.

“Conceptual Romance” will be on view from September 14 to November 2, 2025, at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art. The opening reception is scheduled for Sunday, September 14, from 1-3 pm, with a curatorial walkthrough at 2 pm.

For more information about Can Yağız and his work, visit cyagiz.com.