Baris Gokturk, study for Gunetre II, 2026

Baris Gokturk
Gunetre II
October 15–November 14, 2026

Equity Gallery is pleased to present Gunetre II, a new site-specific sculptural installation by Baris Gokturk. Returning to the gallery courtyard, Gokturk extends his ongoing exploration of how images, materials, and existing forms can be dismantled and reconfigured in response to the environments they inhabit.

Gokturk is known for experimental, multi-layered processes that produce multiple iterations from the same reference image. His work involves shredding, layering, and transferring historical archives, documents of global political dissent, and “photographic skin” images onto physical sculptures. Densely coded and ambiguous, these works elude easy interpretation, loosening predetermined definitions and allowing meaning to emerge gradually.

Made specifically for Equity Gallery’s courtyard, Gunetre II continues the artist’s Shape-shifters body of work. Deconstructed, layered, and rebuilt into a new form, the work feels vaguely familiar while resisting easy definition. Moving between drawing, painting, and sculpture, these works give new form to found objects, existing artworks, and paint skins or surfaces. Their ability to adapt and reform is central to the artist’s approach.

Gokturk describes the origins of the series:

“I have been developing a body of work titled Shape-shifters, which originates from my interest in fires—specifically protest fires—and their dual capacity for both destruction and regeneration. This investigation into global civil unrest eventually led me toward a more mythological dimension, centering on the avian figure of the Phoenix. The concept of a perpetual cycle shifting from flames to ashes and back again directly mirrors my material process. Within this practice, traditional boundaries dissolve: painting is approached as sculpture, sculpture operates as drawing, and drawings evolve into film.”

Baris Gokturk

Baris Gokturk is an artist and educator raised in Turkey and Puerto Rico. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from Columbia University and an MFA in Painting from Hunter College. He is an Associate Professor at Rhode Island School of Design.

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Equity Gallery was made possible through a gift from Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence. Equity Gallery’s programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.