Mesut Karakış – (b. 1976) is a contemporary Turkish artist, who currently works and resides in Istanbul, and graduated from Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts, Hüsamettin Koçan Workshop, Department of Painting. Focusing on the intrinsic structure of painting itself, his works’ compositions aim for a maximal aesthetic impact and retinal effect, with a sophisticated and individual painting technique that shifts permanently between construction and destruction, revealing and concealing. In his paintings, the final image that appears on the foreground is not painted with a brush. The artist uses a chemical reaction between water and acrylic paint for disengaging and dissolving certain parts of the color from the image. Every painting begins with surfaces being treated one layer at a time as part of a uniquely individual composition that will ultimately contain multiple dozens of layers. During this process, each acrylic color layer — which are themselves the product of different densities of paint reapplied according to composition and color palette — is redefined by interacting with both the previous and the next layers. After sheeting of the surface is finished, individual layers are thinned and reduced by being sandpapered and patinated according to the plan of each composition. Through this process of reduction, the colors and textures in the lower layers become evident and come to surface, revealing a whole new look and impression. The depth and the textural value of the work when seen from a distance, together with the flat, smooth surface of the canvas while looked upon from up-close, serve to create an effect of illusion on the audience. Mesut Karakış counts among these innovative artists that push abstract painting beyond its classic limits for opening-up new ways of production and reception.