Akdeniz University
Antalya, Turkey

Şemseddin Ziya Dağlı was born in Tosya, Kastamonu. He completed his primary and secondary education in Ankara Hasanoğlan Atatürk İlköğretmen High School. He graduated from the University of Gazi, Faculty of Education, Art Education Department Painting Teaching Program . He worked as a teacher in Çankırı and Ankara for a while. He was assigned as a lecturer in the Formation Courses for teachers held by Ministery of Education. He had a Master’s Degree at Arts Teaching Programme in University of Gazi. He also attended the Proficiency in Arts program at University of Selçuk Institute of Social Sciences.

In 1990, he took part in the foundation of department of Art of Painting in Atatürk University Kazım Karabekir Faculty of Education. He worked there until 1994. Same year, he was assigned to S.D.Ü B. Faculty of Education, Painting Department as an assistant professor. He contributed to the foundation of the S.D.University, department of Fine Arts. He was appointed to this university as a lecturer in 1994-1995 academic year. He served as the deputy dean and Head of the Department of Traditional Turkish Handcrafts in the University. He was appointed as the Head of Graphics department in 1996. He worked in that department until 2002. He has still been working as a lecturer in the department of Graphics in Mediterranean University.

He is a member of Turkish Union of Owners of Fine Arts (GESAM) and has taken part in several personal and group exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. Artist has many works in public and private collections in both Turkey and overseas countries (such as Russia, Kazakhistan, Tatarstan, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Germany, the USA and Finland). The artist has many articles in papers and magazines, TV and radio broadcasts on the Turkish painting, Western abstract art and traditional Turkish handcrafts. He has also workshops about Turkish marbling art (Ebru), extensive researches and international declarations and articles. Having been specialised in ceramic tiles art, the artist, by combining art of tiles and marbling together, introduced marbled tiles as a fresh interpretation of arts to the international platforms. The artist has a book to be published soon, on Turkish Ebru Art and its challenges.

Understanding of art
The artist has worked in various fields of art and especially, his oil paintings are inspired by Salvador Dali. Although his paintings and photographs are influenced by his dreams, he gives messages from the real life. He takes the forms and colors from the real world and brings them into the art in a realist approach as an irrealist style. Thus, his works contain images both from natural and non-natural issues. While composing his works, he aims to form a shape and in this shape, colors are formed with other colors. He also considers the psychological empathy among work of art, artist and the audience. In his watercolor paintings, he illustrates the natural beauties with lavi technique by using realistic images and searching for soft tones. During this process, he views the perspectives of drawings through an unclear atmosphere. In his Ebru works, he reflects a harmony dealing with mathematical and physical functions strictly that proves the theory of Aristotle’s ‘’there is nothing disorder and lawless in the universe, the universe is the order itself”’. He tries to catch the fairy dance of paints on kitre, the surrealist expressions of his oil paintings, abstract and tashist understanding, harmony of colors in Ebru and various images.

He has been trying the same techniques on different materials and composing the similar styles in his Ebru on glass works. He provides an original interpretation by transferring tiles, another traditional Turkish decorative art, into marbling. He presented the marbled tiles into Turkish art as an alternative point of view.

ARTISTIC PRACTICE AREAS
• Oil painting
• Watercolor
• Marbling
• Ceramic- tiles
Official artist’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/semsettindagli