Art is a mysterious world. Sometimes it is bright, shiny, and full of joy and pleasure. Though, it can also be dark, grim, and scary, as it might reveal crisis, drama, and trauma. The reason for the art world’s complexity is simple: Artists deal with and reveal all sphere of life, the nice and beautiful ones as well as the one we normally try to skip and forget. This gives art an important social dimension, as it goes beyond clichés, the popular and the obvious for critically exposing alternative insights in the multilayered meanings of our realities. Baysan Yüksel is an artist that follows this strategy by dealing with socio-political as well as psychological matters from her personal point of view. Her paintings and sculptures question what it means to be alive, what it means to be human and what it means to be a young woman today. Though, the special quality of her works is that they exceed individual and personal matters, so that every spectator can easily draw connections to his/ her own existence. Although her pieces are highly autobiographic, they are open enough for giving their audiences the chance to reflect on life and society in general. Starting from her educational background in sociology, Baysan’s figurative, sometimes illustrative-like pieces tell stories about love, and fear, joy and pain, human relationships, and loneliness, as well as dreams and nightmares. In a neo-surreal approach, she interconnects the spheres of reality and dream reality by creating an appealing mix of facts and fiction. In the context of contemporary art, her artistic approach is refreshing and extraordinary, because she successfully combines art with graphic design, representation with abstraction, realism with surrealism as well as fine art with street art. Her retrospective-like solo exhibition at Cemal Süreya Etkinlik Merkezi presents over fifty works from 2007 until today. Presenting various styles and aesthetics that she developed during the last 15 years, Wonderland exposes Baysan Yüksel’s artistic quest in which she has found numerous methods for expressing her thoughts and feelings about our contemporary world. The exhibition presents an astonishing variety of artistic styles and so underlines her pluralist approach to art and aesthetics. Baysan Yüksel is a visual narrator who shares the stories of her life in a way that we can reconsider our own form of existence. The exhibition resembles an exciting ride in a fast rollercoaster through a land of strange stories, weird creatures, and extraordinary visions, where we can discover multiple dimensions of the seen and unseen, as well as the known and unknown from alternative angles. Welcome to Wonderland! Wonderland was an unofficial retrospective exhibition celebrating the artists works for over 20 years. Curator: Marcus Graf Assistant Curator: Öykü Demirci Exhibition Production Assistants: Havva Kurt, Ümit Deniz Özgültekin Banner Design: Baysan Yüksel Catalog Design: Havva Kurt Photographs: Baysan Yüksel, Derin Esmer, İbrahim Yüksel, Kadir İncesu Exhibition Installation: Fiksatif Virtual Exhibition: Dream Reality Exhibition Sponsor: Municipality of Ataşehir