Uğur Karataş’s paintings are characterized by their intense exploration of the possibilities of abstract art. The exclusion of both a general composition and central motifs positions his paintings within the modernist allover painting tradition. Grid-like structures rigidly organize the pictorial action, highlighting a comprehensive structure far from the center that has the potential to transcend the edges of the paintings. The shimmering textures of independent structures create depthless spaces that appear as self-referential landscapes in their formation. The artist calls these structures “fractal landscapes.” While these works create the impression of a surface-covered painting, they are actually compositions produced in the monotype printmaking process. The dichotomy between production and result, form and material, represents a central motif in Karataş’s practice. His paintings emerge from materials such as plastic bags and packaging materials; these materials are processed and subjected to a complex process that creates relationships and tensions between colors and tones, textures and surfaces.

(b. 1991, Bitlis) Uğur Karataş graduated from the Painting Department of Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir in 2015. Between 2019 and 2021, he completed his master’s degree in fine arts at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen in the studio of Heike Kati Barath. Since 2024, Uğur Karataş has been continuing his master’s studies in the Painting Department of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of Daniel Richter. To date, he has held exhibitions in Bremen, Berlin, Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. Invited to the Bremer Kunststipendium Artist Residency program in Bremen in 2018, Karataş lives and works in Germany.