Deniz Pasha

Deniz Pasha is a Turkish-Sudanese artist whose practice includes painting, print-making, performance, and installation. She explores the ongoing impact of the Ottoman Empire's treatment of African individuals, specifically as it relates to the experiences of immigrants and migrants currently living in Turkey. Using portraiture, symbolism, and motifs, Pasha highlights the ways in which the historical exploitation of African labor is mirrored in the marginalized and hidden lives of immigrant workers in Turkey. By using critical race theory, she examines the labor practices and laws impacting contemporary African immigrants, and aims to shed light on the experiences and perspectives of marginalized communities. Her artistic process is deeply influenced by intellectual thought and literature, and drawing inspiration from writers such as August Wilson and Toni Morrison, she conducts research, artistic and poetic thinking emerges, leading her to start sketching. This process results in a diverse collection of portraits that are connected by a common thread, forming a cohesive and synergistic body of work. ...

Ballon Rouge began as a nomadic gallery in September of 2017. In our first two years we put up exhibitions in Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Brussels, Sao Paulo, Paris, and New York. Each of the cities we visited was stewarded by a ‘collective member’ - a curator who introduced us to artists and to their respective city’s art scene. In March of 2019 we made Brussels our home city, inaugurating our permanent space. While we will continue to do shows abroad alongside our collective members, our primary location is now Brussels. Besides our own exhibitions, the space in Brussels sometimes hosts invited international galleries to show with us in exchange for a show of ours at theirs - a further continuation of our ethos of collaboration and collectivity. So far we have collaborated or will soon collaborate with Hannah Barry Gallery (London); Melange (Cologne); Galerist (Istanbul); Gallery Artbeat, (Tbilisi); the Pill (Istanbul); Pi Artworks (Istanbul, London); Vitrine (London, Basel). ...