ABOUT ME

Serap Kanay is a freelance artist, social commentator, and a Tourist Guide from Famagusta, Cyprus. She is interested in the telling and the archival of alternative “hi/stories”; Herstory through art. Memory, gender, oral history, African Cypriot heritage and trauma are her prime research areas.  Her main form of expression is Installations where she employs the use of sound, text, textiles, photographs and video as medium.

The artist has been avidly researching Afro Cypriot Heritage since Mid 1990’s. Her work on this has been included in several theses. Taking ‘Personal is Political’ as her motto she believes an artist’s life is her work and records everyday concerns and beauty and presents them in different art forms pointing to their universality. The Mediterranean along with Cypriot land and skyscapes are her breathing spaces.

Kanay has participated in exhibitions, workshops, conferences and paper presentations in Cyprus, England, Sweden, France, Italy and Germany. She has written several articles combining art and tourism which have been published in Tourist Guide and art Magazines in North Cyprus, Turkey and England. Kanay is also co-author of two academic papers entitled Embracing Afro Hair Resisting Colourism:  Black Women’s Experience in North Cyprus published in Ethic and Racial Studies, October 2021. ‘Afro Cypriots: Prejudice, Colourism, Racism and Rising Black Consciousness in Cyprus’ published in Journal of Intercultural Studies, July 2022

EDUCATION

2011- 2014 Research Master, Cultural Analysis (RMA) University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

1994 – 1997 BA Fine Arts (Honours Degree), London Guildhall University, England

solo exhıbıtıonS

October-November 2021  

“The Tumultuous Experience of Pandemic Life”- Exhibition. Artist Proof  Prints of abstract drawings. ARUCAD Art Space, Nicosia, Cyprus

February 2020  “Bakma“ – Installation. Photograph, Video, Audio and Text, Rüstem Kitabevi Gallery Space, Nicosia, Cyprus

May 2006  “Room” – Installation. Creation of two calico rooms in a gothic church Alternative history told on CD Twin Churches, Old Town Famagusta, Cyprus

June 1998  “The Writing on the Wall’ – Installation with audio sounds (Turkish /English) and photograph in a created space. Sutton House Gallery Hackney, London England

June 1996  “A Sense of Place II” – Installation of 3D paper pulp forms. White Chapel Music and Art Library   London England