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Atonal Drift brings together Zümrütoğlu's highly expressive paintings and sculptures in an attempt to demonstrate how the artist explores the theme of the 'dissonant and disharmonious body' as well as the possibilities of figurative abstraction across different mediums. The dynamism of colour and fleshy painterliness which first captivated Zümrütoğlu's audience through his paintings, is now offered to the viewer through his new sculptural work. After a visceral shock or being hit 'in the gut', as Zümrütoğlu often states, one begins to see figures slowly emerge and materialise through the thick paint and ceramic forms.
The title of the exhibition, Atonal Drift, marks an extension of the progressive thinking first expressed by Austrian-born composer and painter, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). The boundaries between the visual and the musical have been extensively explored; from the Pythagoreans to the Modernists, visionaries and thinkers throughout history have developed theories that have connected harmony in music with art. As the literary and art critic Walter Pater (1839 - 1894) boldly announced, 'all art constantly aspires towards the condition of music'. What does it mean, then, to frame Zümrütoğlu's work within one of the most challenging musical genres, personified by Schoenberg?
