CURATING COMPLEDICTION
Artworks for the Pursuit of Beauties Left in the Background
Mehmet Salih Kanber (MSK) is an artist operating between two fundamentally opposing disciplines: engineering and art. Engineering builds systems, measures reality, and accelerates processes. Art perceives, questions, and slows time down. MSK carries both selves within him. Rather than resolving this tension, he sustains it. His practice is grounded in what he defines as Complediction: a state in which contradiction is not eliminated, but structured, separated, and allowed to let each discipline complete the other.
MSK is in pursuit of beauties left in the background. If you are too, his artworks may resonate with you.
THE LOST STONE AND MATERIALIZATION OF HIS MANIFESTO
In his youth, while entering the sea burdened by existential anxiety, MSK stepped on a smooth, ancient sea stone. Its unexpected beauty momentarily silenced his troubled mind. He took the stone home as a silent companion.
Years later, after marriage and fatherhood, his life collapsed under rapid personal crises. Left in profound solitude, he was visited in a dream by the same sea stone. It spoke: “Do not grieve. What is happening is your path. Beauty will return. Hold on to art. If you learn to truly see beauty, everything will heal.”
Upon waking, the physical stone had disappeared, MSK couln't find it anywhere. This mysterious encounter became a turning point. Falling in love with an artist, MSK began creating in search of meaning. Through emotional turmoil, he gradually understood the stone’s true message: beauty was not merely romantic love, but the hidden wonders we overlook in everyday life.
From this realization, his artistic manifesto emerged: "He will create artworks for the pursuit of beauties left in the background"
He transformed the memory of the lost stone into a necklace and ring, wearable symbols of his manifesto. The hardships that once broke him became the gateway to his art. Art became his anchor to life. This deep connection with sea stones awakened in him a sensitivity to their million-year-old memory and compressed energy. He began reading these silent witnesses of time.
This journey gave birth to his Stone Portraits series, where he channels the primordial energy and ancient beauty of stones into contemporary art, inviting viewers to pause, see, and reconnect with the overlooked beauty around and within them.
For MSK, the sea stone was never just an object. It was a catalyst, guiding him from personal crisis toward spiritual and artistic wholeness.
RESUME
The artist holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU) and a Master’s degree from Akdeniz University. With a professional background spanning energy systems, automation, robotics, and control engineering, his work is grounded in a deep understanding of technical structure, systems thinking, and functional design.
Alongside his artistic practice, he founded a company focused on developing functional products that can be manufactured through 3D printing. This intersection of engineering precision and creative experimentation informs a multidisciplinary approach, where material, process, and perception are explored as interconnected systems.
DEVELOPED ARTISTIC SYSTEMS
Evolving system of perception where light, shadow, and depth are precisely constructed to reveal latent forms.
Authenticity is no longer external verification, but an intrinsic, living extension of the piece.
A speculative system that questions whether material can carry traces beyond its visible form.
For kinetic artworks to avoid the visual interruption created by conventional cables.
SELECTED PRESS & EXHIBITIONS
MSK’s works may be encountered independent of place, appearing unexpectedly at a street corner (MSK Stones) or at times in global exhibitions (Stone Portraits, Stonalyzer).
HIS WORDS
COPYRIGHT & RIGHTS
All works, images, texts, and content presented on this website are the intellectual property of Mehmet Salih Kanber and are protected by applicable laws. Unauthorized use in any form is strictly prohibited.
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