Migrations on Silk

Solo Exhibition by Belgin Yucelen

With Migrations on Silk, I wanted to create a space for the unspoken narratives of migrations to dissolve the separation between us and the immigrants of the past and the present, across cultures, distances and time.

I made drawings of immigrants like an ancient filmstrip travelogue from above, on silk. I used silk because it still carries ‘life’ as it is graced and perfumed by the last breath of the silk worm. Using an ancient Japanese technique, I painted many layers of pigments on paper to create imaginary landscapes. The layers of pigments allude to layers of generations, geologies, peoples, cultures, and languages. The moons are created by luminescent gofun made of oyster shells to illuminate the way.

The stories you hear are stories of immigrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Vietnam, France and Taiwan. It is only when you stay in front of the painting, that the ‘life’ of the painting is prolonged and a story is told; demanding a longer presence from you. Some mountains will reveal themselves a little later anyway.

I am grateful to Sharon Prize for supporting my project. I also would like to thank Dave Harrison for his exquisite craftmanship, Celeste Moreno for helping me with the sound system, Cindi Yaklich for her design support and all the immigrants who shared their stories knowing it is vulnerable to do so.

Belgin Yucelen

Artist Statement

Imagination starts with a void and goes farther than the stars. I create imaginary worlds to help conjure these endless possibilities so we can all go beyond stars and dream. 

I am a Turkish-American multimedia artist. I create paintings, sculpture, photography, theater, installation, and prints. With each story I tell, I aim to start a communication dissolving the separation between us, and across time, distance and culture. 

I float in the freedom of not belonging to any place yet I am my past. In my paintings, I sail along the wine-colored seas of the Bosphorus. In my songs, I walk the cobblestone streets of my first neighborhood. In my films, black and white photos of my family float on laundry lines along with my childhood dresses. At the same time, I borrow stories from people, and places I pass through. I am interested in the simplicity of Japanese aesthetics, the mysterious power of illegible Islamic calligraphy and the misty landscapes in Chinese paintings. I have a desire to feel at its deepest even if this might invite an amorous darkness, or else we float above the surface of life without going deep. This is why I talk about passion, desire, and love. To further encourage imagination, I use silences, and empty spaces that create ambiguity, where the viewer can escape from the limitations of well-defined depictions. With a sense of mystery and humor, I ask the viewer to find out what is hidden behind, through revealing and concealing. In my art, I display my innermost secrets with all the vulnerability it takes. Hence my desire for honesty.

The moon, fog, dusk, icebergs, conversations, night, and white peonies are a few of my favorite things. If anyone takes away my freedom to fly, I will slowly die.

Belgin Yucelen Bio

While enhancing our imaginations and consciousness, Belgin Yücelen’s art remains true to the desire to create meaning and beauty in subtle simplicity. With her paintings, sculptures, prints, films, poetry and theater, she creates a fictional world beyond the existing to conjure unrealized possibilities to challenge imaginations. Traces of her previous years in Turkey appear in her artwork placing it at the fascinating edge where East and West meet and ancient and modern coincide. She has been recognized by organizations such as the Colorado Creative Industries, Boulder Country Arts Alliance, Moon and Stars Grant, Clark Hulings Fund, Hemera Foundation, and National Sculpture Society and has shown her work nationally and internationally. Her work has been widely publicized. She founded House of Serein in 2019 as a creative space for community use and studios for artists in Boulder, CO. Artist Residency at La Macina di San Cresci, Italy in 2021 and in the Arctic Circle in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway in October 2024.

Check out Belgin’s work: belginyucelen.com
Connect with Belgin on Instagram: @belginyucelenartist

Exhibition Dates

Migrations on Silk is on view at the NoBo Bus Stop Gallery, March 6 – March 29, 2026.

Exhibition Events

Opening Reception: First Friday, March 6th, 6-9 PM
Closing Reception: Saturday, March 28, 6-9 PM