Issehoved, Samsø 3, 2023, Oil on canvas, 80 x 120 cm

While the ocean bears a deep stillness, a field of cottontails in Özer Toraman’s Issehoved, Samsø 3 dance in the breeze. The landscape appears barren with its swathes of blues and greens, but Toraman makes us privy to two strangers seated apart from each other. Both look out towards the sea, possibly in the midst of a conversation. They are seemingly distant yet in communion, sharing the same time and place. Toraman’s emphasis on appreciating another person’s being in an imagined faraway place is a simple pleasure that makes his canvas compelling.