Metanoia

Metanoia is a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Hakan Gürbüzer at Galeri 77, a gallery in Karaköy, Istanbul. It runs from 10 September to 7 November 2026 and brings together sixteen works dated 2021 to 2026. Thirteen are oil paintings on canvas, two are pencil drawings on paper and one is a pastel on paper.

The title comes from metanoia, a word for a deep change in a person's outlook, beliefs and habits of thought. Gürbüzer's work centres on the human figure and on the tension between inner life and the world outside it. The artist returns to solitude among other people, to memory and belonging, to the question of who one is, and to the marks that time leaves on a person.

The gallery's exhibition text describes a visual language that joins cubist fragmentation, hyperrealist detail and the logic of collage. Fragmentation deforms the faces in his portraits and places several viewpoints on one surface, while precise rendering relates to the photographic gaze. The largest canvas, A Different Place (2024), measures 130 by 220 centimetres. Once Upon a Time (2026) is a square canvas, 160 centimetres on each side. Installation views show the framed paintings hung on white walls in the gallery, with the show's title printed on the gallery window facing the street.

Gürbüzer was born in Denizli in 1990 and lives and works there. He studied visual arts education at Pamukkale University from 2010 to 2014. Press coverage describes Metanoia as his first solo exhibition, following group shows in Denizli and at Galeri 77. The gallery is open Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 6pm.