Duruman’s paintings are driven both by an intuitive fascination with the visual interplay of colors and forms that began in her childhood, and a desire to showcase her findings on sexuality and selfhood.  Many of her works are self-portraits showing the painter inwardly observing representations of her body and sensory experiences; “I Can Hear You” portrays the eye of the painter cooly gazing at the viewer but also into her reassembled body.  In Turkish, the word for earlobes is “kulak memesi”, and “meme” means breast; Duruman humorously attaches a breast to an ear, suggesting sexuality’s inextricable role in our sensory perceptions and a relationship between culture, language, flesh and sexuality. The breast is cradled like a heart by hands that look like arteries. 

A highlight of the exhibition, “Breath of Cold Air” depicts a bouquet of female body parts, some more instantly recognizable than others, interlaced against each other in a composed manner that also denotes undercurrents of instability. The ears, thighs, and breasts are painted with an icing spatula used for applying cream to cakes, and the rugged, beige strokes are more skinlike and human to Duruman as they more truthfully portray the turbulent, imperfect inner realities of existence. Gray, beastly heads appear in several works to represent the animalistic sides of our identity that is often domesticated by our efforts to adhere to social norms; the aforementioned beige textures recur throughout these motifs to suggest the existence of humanity within these cold, monstrous faces.  A contrasting pool of blue of abstract breast rests amidst the coarse skins; its smoothness references the calmness of the surface of oceans which conceals a ruthless world underneath, or the blue sky which blurs an ominous void beyond the atmosphere.  

“Just a Glimpse?” is Duruman’s newest and largest canvas, releasing many motifs and themes present throughout this series in a complex and mature composition that is deliberately designed to invite viewers to immerse in the image in addition to perceiving the work from afar as an outsider.  The body parts are arranged in a fluid and exuberant manner that emanates acceptance of the chaos and mysticism of sexuality.  The kneeling foot that evokes a sense of oppression and tethered anxiety in several other canvases is now freed. The figures are surrounded by blood and water which make up, respectively, 10% and 60% of the body, and evoke Duruman’s interest in liquid surfaces and more universal meditations on human nature.