Between Presence and Perception
Duet Exhibition Featuring
Motoko Otsuki
Halide Fulya Ceker
Between Presence and Perception
Curatorial Statement
Between Presence and Perception brings together the portrait works of Motoko Otsuki and Fulya Ceker, exploring the ways identity, presence, and perception can be expressed through the human figure. Though their approaches differ, both artists look beyond straightforward representation, transforming the portrait into a space where emotion, atmosphere, character, and interpretation can emerge.
Otsuki begins with photographic fragments, drawing from snapshots that capture partial views, cropped moments, and incidental details. Her paintings preserve a sense of distance and ambiguity, allowing figures and their surroundings to remain slightly unresolved. Familiar faces and settings can appear calm at first, yet subtle shifts and dissonances create a feeling of emotional distance—of being present while somehow remaining at the periphery.
Ceker approaches portraiture through the language of fashion illustration, focusing on the attitude of the silhouette, the movement of fabric, and the personality and emotion expressed through the figure. Her portraits connect appearance with character, using style and gesture to communicate something beyond the surface of the subject.
Together, the artists offer two distinct interpretations of the portrait: one shaped by fragments, memory, and perceptual uncertainty; the other by fashion, gesture, and expressive presence. Their works invite viewers to consider how a face or figure can hold meanings that extend beyond likeness, and how identity can be perceived through what is revealed, suggested, and left unresolved.
ABOUT Motoko Otsuki
Motoko Otsuki is a painter based in New York. She received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Tokyo Zokei University in Japan. Her paintings are based on scenes encountered in everyday life, such as meals, interiors, and fleeting landscapes. Rather than treating these scenes simply as records, she explores what painting can make visible as she translates them onto the canvas. While the scenes may initially appear familiar, their relationships and sense of distance gradually become less certain the longer they are viewed. Through the relationships between elements and shifting perspectives, Otsuki explores distance, time, and subtle emotional shifts within everyday experience. She often returns to the same motifs, leaving quick brushstrokes visible on the surface while attending to relationships and distances between elements. In exhibitions, she often presents an odd number of works, leaving a sense that something remains unfinished or still in progress rather than forming a fully resolved whole.
Through painting, Otsuki examines the space between familiarity and distance, clarity and ambiguity. Her paintings contain a sense of unease and dissonance, while also retaining the quietness of observing events from a slight distance.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I draw based on snapshot photographs taken by myself or others. Fragments from these images are quietly interspersed across the canvas. What may appear calm or balanced at first often carries a subtle instability, like a photo taken by an accidental press of the shutter, or a faint, unsettling memory lingering at the edge of one’s vision. Rather than seeking resolution, my works present the dissonance and discomfort that arise from the relationships between things, how they shift, misalign, or resist cohesion. The depicted elements do not stand alone; their meanings emerge through proximity, contrast, and spatial tension. I depict “distance”—between objects, between moments— and record that uneven blur with brushes and pigment.
Like passing scenery glimpsed from a car window, fragments resurface unexpectedly in the periphery, leaving behind quiet traces of imbalance.
Featured Works of Motoko Otsuki
ABOUT Halide Fulya Ceker
I am a fashion designer (studied fine art school in master) with 20 years of experience in Eu and Usa industry.For the past 4 years, I have also been working as fashion illustrator with brands.I ve completed several art and illustration workshops and courses in Amsterdam,Lisse,Rotterdam and Düsseldorf, which helped me develop a refined, international perspective in my work. As a fashion illustrator , I am passionate about creating beautiful and inspiring artwork that captures the essence of fashion and style.My work focuses on capturing the essence of design — the flow of the fabric, the attitude of a silhouette, and the personality emotion behind each collection.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice is rooted in a fascination with the human figure and the quet complexity of human presence. I am particularly drawn to portraiture because I see the face and body not simply as subjects to represent, but as places where emotion, memory, identity, and vulnerability can be explored. Working primarily with watercolour, soft pastel, and charcoal, I am interested in the relationship between observation and expression. Each medium allows me to approach the figure differently: watercolour gives me transparency and fluidity, pastel allows me to explore colour, atmosphere, and softness, while charcoal offers a more direct and physical language through line, tone, and gesture. I often focus on subtle expressions, posture, and moments of stillness. Rather than seeking a purely photographic likeness, I want my portraits to communicate something of the person beyond their physical appeaance. I am interested in what can be revealed through a gaze, a gesture, or even an incomplete mark, allowing space for ambiguity and personal interpretation. My commitment to portraiture and the human figure continues to shape the direction of my career. Recognition through exhibitions and awards, including my experience with the Oxo Gallery in London and the Dewent Art Prize, has encouraged me to develop this practice further and to pursue new ways of understanding and representing people through drawing and painting. Ultimately, my work is an ongoing investigation into what it means to look at another person—and what might be revealed when we allow ourselves to truly see them.
