Hayal Pozanti

Hayal Pozanti (b. 1983, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist who lives and works in Manchester, Vermont. Using oil stick and oil pastel on canvas and paper with a sculptural approach, Pozanti creates swirling, organic forms that rise and fall in waves of deep, jewel-toned hues. Her compositions originate from a discrete set of thirty-one shapes she developed to function as icons in a personal lexicon, forming abstract calligraphic arrangements. Over the past decade, these glyphs have evolved and softened into new forms that suggest imaginary landscapes. Pozanti’s compositions are filled with amoeba-like shapes, suggesting mysterious biological life forms and abstract worlds that reflect universal truths about reality. She views painting as both a means of world-making and a way to be present in the world as it is.

In 2021, the artist created Instant Paradise, an eighty-five-foot-long permanent art installation on the ceiling of the New York Public Library's largest circulating branch. Consisting of colorful, sculptural iterations of the thirty-one forms from the language she developed, the installation is on permanent view at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. Representing the American Pavilion at Gwangju Biennale in 2024, Pozanti showcased a series of sculptures responding to what it means to present Asian art in the US at this moment in history.