We have Mehves Lelic as our guest this week for the interview series. Mehves is an Istanbul-born artist, curator and educator based on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In her work she ponders modernity and heritage, belonging, and the resulting relationship with the environment. She is an Assistant Professor of Art and Art History and the Director of Mosely Gallery at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She holds an MFA from Bard College and a BA from the University of Chicago.
We have known each other since childhood, growing up with stories told by our grandmothers when they became friends in their teen years and inventing creative games for ourselves. We studied in the same school and lived in Chicago around the same time. She is an amazing talented friend, supporter and a mentor.
Website: https://mehveslelic.com/
Instagram: @mehvelelic
1.    What are your both digital and analogue favourite tools?
I use a mirrorless digital and I have a medium format camera as well. I like making big inkjet prints that hold space. I enjoy making contact prints that I can enhance as monotypes – cyanotypes, liquid light, etc, with added gold leaf.
2.    Who inspires you the most, whether an artist, designer, architect, or a family member?
Â
Some artists I love (and some are now friends!) and admire are Laura Letinsky, Alyson Shotz and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons.
A year since by Mehves Lelic
3.    Share a new trend that excites you.
Â
I am intrigued that some art institutions are rehanging their collection galleries so that old and modern masters can share space. So many amazing contemporary artists deserve to be canonized. Art history is a rewarding discipline if we think of it as an intertwined sphere rather than a line.
4.    Briefly discuss the latest book, movie, and exhibition you enjoyed and why.
Â
I just finished the Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. It’s a timeless epic – the hyperbolic oddities of our shared existence makes you think about all the forces that had to be in play for you to come into this world.
Moon in a tidal lock by Mehves Lelic
5.    What's your go-to song in the studio?
Shrimp Dance by Hiroshi Suzuki.
Â
6.    What’s a good studio advice to share?
Most of my work happens in the outside world rather than a studio, but I think ingenuity and authenticity are paramount to any artistic practice. Let your work’s complexity speak for itself.
About Mehves Lelic
Mehves is an Istanbul-born artist, curator and educator based on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In her work she ponders modernity and heritage, belonging, and the resulting relationship with the environment. She is an Assistant Professor of Art and Art History and the Director of Mosely Gallery at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She holds an MFA from Bard College and a BA from the University of Chicago.
Lelic's photographic work has been exhibited internationally in venues such as the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Rotterdam Photo Festival, PhotoNOLA, Filter Photo Chicago, the Ogden Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art Baltimore, Cosmos Arles France, the Photographers’ Gallery Istanbul, and others. Her work has been published in the National Geographic, GEO Magazine, Ain’t Bad, Lenscratch, C41, Aesthetica and Der Greif. She has been awarded the National Geographic Expeditions Council Grant, the City of Chicago Individual Artists’ Award, the Turkish Cultural Foundation Cultural Exchange Fellowship, the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) Conference Fellowship, and the ArtTable Faith Flanagan Fellowship.
Lelic previously served as Curator and the Head of the Curatorial Department at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland and has curated and organized over 20 exhibitions, including Spatial Reckoning: Morandi, Picasso, and Villon (2023); Laura Letinsky: No More Than It Should Be (2023); Marty Two Bulls, Jr.: Dominion (2023); In Praise of Shadows: Jun'ichiro Tanizaki and Modern and Contemporary Works (2023); Mary Cassatt: Labor and Leisure (2023); Fickle Mirror: Dialogues in Self-Portraiture (2022); Jackie Milad: Vestige (2022); Norma Morgan: Enchanted World (2022); The Movable Image: Video Art by Collis/Donadio, Shala Miller, and Rachel Schmidt (2022); Hoesy Corona: Terrestrial Caravan (2022); and On Water (2019).