The Armory Show : Jyll Bradley | Susan Hefuna | Gulay Semercioglu

Javits Centre, New York City 6 - 8 September 2024 

Jyll Bradley’s practice extends across various mediums, but the architectural forms of the hops from her native Kent, as well as the play of light she recalls filtering through her childhood home’s greenhouse roof, are present across them all. Her carbon-paper drawings and Graft sculptures embody a life-long interest in agricultural structures, with her signature edge-lit plexiglass speaking to her unique approach to minimalism, a minimalism infused with personal history. 


Similarly, Hefuna works across drawing, sculpture, installation, performance and videos, drawing on her mixed heritage and personal, architectural memories growing up across Cairo and Berlin. Inspired by light’s movement through Mashrabiyas - carved wood or stone lattice work window screens - Hefuna’s work ponders the intersection between location and identity. Her drawings, on show here, use tracing paper, stitching and indian ink to evoke a sense of depth while remaining ambiguous, playing with our ideas of structure and how it permeates our psychology. 


Looking once again to nostalgia and reflection on the structures that shape us, Semercioglu’s specially commissioned tile work directly references those that surrounded her upbringing: Mosques, Hammams, and the buildings that make up her native Anatolia. Using her signature wire-weaving technique, her practice embodies traditional craft, motifs and fragments of Anatolian family life. The geometric forms present here create a field of kinetic impact, an utterly unique approach to Turkish carpet (or Kilim) patterns that also explores architectural structures and textural influences.