Arzu Arda Kosar
Empathy Circle by Arzu Arda Kosar, Darlyn Susan Yee, Katelyn Dorroh and Julie Kornblum, installation, 2011
Arzu Arda Kosar received her MFA from the University of Southern California and completed her undergraduate work in Studio Arts and Art History, with a minor in Philosophy and Women’s Studies, at the University of Pittsburgh. Her art focuses on topics related to inter-group relationships and balkanization. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including Shoshanna Wayne Gallery, 18th Street Art Center Crazy Space in Santa Monica and several others. Kosar’s work has earned major recognition from periodicals such as The Los Angeles Times, OC Weekly, the Lummox Journal, Cumhuriyet, Nokta and her articles on architecture and sociology have appeared in Doxa magazine.
After a two-year project for the Istanbul 2010 European Cultural Capital agency, Kosar was so excited by Istanbul’s increasingly vibrant art scene that she produced and co-curated the Los Angeles Istanbul Connection at the 18th Street Arts Center exhibiting Turkish artists alongside their LA based peers who work on a similar trajectory. Kosar also collaborated with Loyola Marymount University students for The Purpose of Being, curated by Ron Lopez, as part of LMU Bellarmine Forum’s Women’s Art and Activism series. She then invited the Arroyo Arts Collective to yarn bomb the 18th St, which led to bi-monthly meetings, fusing together a diverse community of artists and resulting in yarn bombings at CAFAM and MOCA as well as the Empathy Circle: a 12’ knit Japanese flag that spells “empathy” in Japanese letters in response to the recent disaster. The Empathy Circle was displayed in Little Tokyo and featured in fundraising efforts. Yarn Bombing 18th Street grew into an international affair with over 65 participants from 4 continents and was quite a spectacle at the June 18th, ArtNight.
