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A coral reef, a bird in flight, a frozen branch, an unfurling bloom, a burst of flame — each begins as something recognizable, drawn from memory or observation of the natural world, and each is carried, through a fluid digital process, to the edge of dissolution. What remains is neither wholly representational nor wholly abstract, but something suspended between the two: matter caught mid-metamorphosis.

I think of these works as ecosystems rather than images. In each, a central mass — a bloom, a nest of feathers, a crystalline knot — gathers energy at its core and radiates outward, dissolving into folds, ribbons, and currents of color that no longer belong to any single species or substance. Feather becomes petal becomes flame becomes ice. Boundaries that structure the natural world — between animal and plant, heat and cold, solid and liquid — grow porous, and new, hybrid forms of life seem to surface in their place.

Color carries much of this work's meaning. Across the series, warmth and coolness are held in constant tension: red against blue, gold against teal, fire meeting frost. This is not decorative contrast but an atmosphere of coexistence — proof that opposing forces can occupy the same space without resolving into stillness. Light gathers at the seams where these temperatures meet, as if transformation itself were luminous.

 

My process remains intuitive and painterly, even though it unfolds on screen. I begin with an image drawn from the living world and allow it to evolve — through layering, distortion, and sustained attention — until it becomes something else: not a record of what was, but a proposal for what might emerge. The resulting textures, whether the fine sedimentary lines of Soft Topographies or the glassy ribbons of Chroma Flame, register this evolution as a kind of visible time, each work a landscape still in the process of becoming.

Taken together, these ten paintings imagine ecologies not yet settled into form — worlds where nature's elements continue to adapt, merge, and renew rather than resolve. In a moment defined by environmental instability, I offer these speculative blooms as a form of hope: evidence that even at the point of dissolution, life finds new shapes to grow into.

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Growing up in Istanbul with an art teacher for a mother, Cagatay became familiar with art at a young age. This experience kick-started the mental and physical database of visual references that she continues to draw on for her meticulously detailed paintings today. Her artist mother taught her painting and art history as a child, and introduced her to the work of the masters, which inspired the artist from a young age; leading to national art prizes - including a first prize in a nation wide art competition when she was a high school senior. She has studied from 11 to 19 years old in Lycée de Galatasaray, a major establishment having formed the politicians and artists of the country. She had the opportunity to use the school’s art studio on the Bosphorus exclusively. The French influence she received in this centuries old school with a blend of French and Turkish curricula reflects in her paintings. She has been invited to the major art academy of the country, and studied at Bosphorus University Business School; which also taught a rich humanities program.

 

The artist pursued a finance executive career working as a management committee member for multinational companies, and quit to indulge in her passion for art. She gave herself a tailored art education, living in art centers - Paris, London and New York- and studied contemporary art at the programs of IESA Paris, Sotheby’s Institute of Art London and New York.  She then had exhibited her work both solo or in group at the gallery she co-founded in 2013, and also at Contemporary Istanbul 2014,2019 , 2020 and 2021 and also in Scope New York 2020 with a solo presentation.