Boran Günday - Modern Artist

Boran Günday (b. 1999, Istanbul) is a self-taught visual artist whose practice investigates the psychological and social dimensions of coercion, violence, and moral rationalization.

Having initially developed his craft within a commercial and decorative art context, Günday has since transitioned toward a conceptually driven and critically engaged body of work.

His recent paintings employ a deliberately raw and gestural figurative language to interrogate how individuals and collective systems justify acts of oppression and harm.

Central to Günday’s current research is the fragile boundary between empathy and moral disengagement — and the ways in which internalized narratives shape the human capacity for both.

His work draws upon personal experiences of social power dynamics and explores broader themes of authority, ideology, and the normalization of violence.

Günday has exhibited in national art fairs and continues to develop his practice independently, with a focus on producing work that is both visually direct and conceptually resonant.

My practice centers on the exploration of coercive power structures and the subtle mechanisms of human rationalization that enable violence and oppression. Through figurative compositions imbued with an intentionally raw and gestural aesthetic, I aim to expose the ways in which individuals and collectives normalize harmful behavior — not through overt malice, but through a systematic erosion of empathy and accountability.

My recurring subjects are archetypal figures of authority, zealotry, and control. They are depicted not as caricatures, but as complex reflections of the ways in which justification narratives permeate the human psyche. These figures act under the guise of righteousness, often unaware of — or indifferent to — the consequences of their actions. The underlying question in my work is not why violence occurs, but how it is psychologically accommodated and socially legitimized.

Having initially developed my visual language within a commercial context, I have since moved toward a more conceptually driven and self-critical approach. My current work consciously rejects aesthetic refinement in favor of a more instinctual and emotionally direct mode of expression. This deliberate embrace of imperfection serves both to undermine the seductive gloss often associated with representations of power, and to foreground the urgency of the subject matter.

Ultimately, my practice is an attempt to interrogate the fragile boundary between moral reasoning and moral disengagement — and to invite viewers to confront their own capacity for both empathy and indifference.