Email me at hale.ekinci [at] gmail.com for inquiries or fill out the contact form below.

Upcoming solo exhibitions:

Fall 2024 // Artist-in-Residence Exhibition - Cook Center Process Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

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ARTIST STATEMENT

I grew up immersed in a community of women crafting, often while sharing food, herbal remedies, and coffee readings. Upon emigrating to the United States, I became captivated by rituals from my heritage such as the use of amulets, and the cultural icons prevalent in my new environment such as party decorations. Rooted in my lived experience as a Middle Eastern immigrant woman becoming a “naturalized” American, I create adorned mixed-media paintings, sculpture, and video embellished with vibrant colors, bold patterns, and autobiographical relics. Mixing textile crafts learned from family and Western fine arts traditions, my work explores the construction of identity through folklore, modes of communication, and gendered labor.

In my creative practice, I gather and transfer black and white family photographs from my Turkish heritage, my Hoosier husband, and found migrant archives using solvents onto household textiles. These figures become part of intricate patterns through repetition and juxtaposition with botanical motifs, symbolizing collectivity. I complicate these representations by obscuring faces with French knots and overlaying vivid paint, printmaking, and embroidery of stereotypical symbols like fezzes, solo cups, and party hats, exploring the malleability of identity and the influence of folklore on our perception of it. Recurring consistently across all works, the obscuring dots form a distinctive pattern that connects all entities. The domestic surfaces mixed with artifacts like fishing crafts and evil eyes become vessels for personal and bodily narratives, invoking a sense of belonging and intimacy. Applying techniques of collage to the moving image, my animated videos explore immigrant identity from both Turkish and Western perspectives, while reflecting on the bizarreness of rituals and stereotypes.

Being bilingual, I analyze language and translation, integrating aspects of non-verbal communication into my work. My exploration of encoded meaning in visual traditions like oya, kilim rugs, Islamic ornamentation, and logos influences my imagery. The decorative fringes are influenced by the Turkish tradition of oya (lace edging on a headdress), and its use of symbolic patterns that serve as a secret language between women to express personal sentiments. I frame the fabrics with vibrant crochet, sometimes imitating traditional oya styles crudely or inventing new motifs, such as the "green card" edging, which reflects my contemporary reality. To embed encoded narratives over my figures the way these practices do, I layer kilim symbols like the akimbo which stands for femininity, or the tulip that signifies power. I playfully embed body language through photos of my body parts in different gestures like high-fives or embroidery of a tongue sticking out to contemplate mutual understanding, connection, and reaction.

I reflect on my place as a creator in the history of undervalued women’s work and the femme spaces that nurtured me. Through the use of domestic and textile fiber crafts, I challenge the assigned value and significance of materials and women’s labor. Longing for roots in a collective culture while embracing my individualistic tendencies, I ground myself in the practice of slow stitching and construct my own layered, hybrid material history.

BIOGRAPHY

Hale Ekinci (b. 1984) is a Turkish-American artist based in Chicago. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts & Media at Columbia College Chicago and is currently a Professor and Chair of Art & Design at North Central College. Rooted in her lived experience as an immigrant, she creates embroidered paintings, sculptures, installations, and videos, embellished with vibrant colors, patterns, and cultural artifacts. Combining Middle Eastern and Western textile craft and fine art traditions, her work explores identity, folklore, communication, and gendered labor.

Ekinci was recently the Engaged Artist-in-Residence at the Gayle Karch Cook Center at Indiana University, including a solo exhibition in Fall 2024. Previously, she was also an artist-in-residence at ACRE, Jiwar Barcelona, Momentum Berlin, Elsewhere Museum, Chicago Artists Coalition Hatch, Spudnik Press, and Facebook Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationally at EXPO Chicago, One After 909, Woman Made Gallery, Koehnline Museum of Art, University of Illinois Springfield, Dittmar Gallery (NU), and Queens College Art Center. Her videos have been screened internationally, in New York City, Berlin, Warsaw, and Jerusalem. She is the recipient of the Fiber & Figure award by the Surface Design Association and the best in show at the South Bend Museum of Art’s 30th Biennial.

SELECTED PRESS

// Luxe Interiors + Design Feature: Society’s Viewpoints Are On Display In This Chicago Artist’s Work, 2023

// Discover: Seven contemporary textile artists, TextileArtis.org, 2023

// Between You and I - Exhibition Press Release, Comfort Station Chicago, 2022

// CONTINUUM - Exhibition Press Release, Textile Center Minneapolis, 2022

// Arte Morbida Interview by Maria Rosaria Roseo

// Not Real Art - Q+Art: Artist Hale Ekinci Explores Cultural Identity with Colorful Embroidery Paintings by Morgan Laurens

// Visual Arts Source “Body is Work” Editorial, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, Illinois, Review by Robin Dluzen

// 11 Contemporary Textile Artists to Celebrate During Women’s History Month at Not Real Art by Jenna Eberhardt

// Skin Deep: A Review of Serious Vanity at One After 909, Newcity, 2019

// Figure & Fiber Award Article, Surface Design Journal, 2018

// Women Cinemakers, Special Edition, Biennale Interview, 2018