Some of the simplest drawings are often the most powerful. Think of the cartoons in newspapers, and you’ll find artists who satirise the most prominent leaders and celebrities. It can result in their deaths, as we saw in the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in 2015, and the film The Sniper Artists tells us of the artists who risked their lives during the Yugoslav Wars to ensure their drawings went to print.
The drawings of Yiğit Özgür feature a heavy dose of satire, and this was on show in his exhibition at Versus Arts in East London, curated by İlayda Uzunarslan. It mixed the biting with the bawdy, and the humorous with the surreal.
The work lampoons modern society as a man confesses that he hates himself after performing the latest dance craze, and the tale of Snow White takes a contemporary turn as she receives seven missed calls instead of from dwarves. These works highlight how absurd modern society can be when a satirist like Özgür turns the lens on it.
At times, there is an absurdist, surreal streak running through his works, such as a man entering hell and asking whether he should leave the door open or closed. Or in the case of a Michael Jackson impersonator at a talent show, he simply lies down because Jackson is now dead. It brings to mind the similar humour found in The Far Side by Gary Larson and the artworks of Glen Baxter, who uses it, though in his case, to take aim at American culture and art history.
There’s a bawdy streak running through his work as a man agrees with the sound a water cooler makes, when an attractive woman walks past, or when a lap dance turns out to be an excuse to defecate in a man’s lap.
While many cartoonists work in newspapers, there’s always been a close link between the medium and the fine art we see in galleries and institutions. Roy Lichtenstein often created large-scale reproductions of comic strip images, including his famous ‘Whaam’ piece, and Keith Haring also populated his works with crudely drawn characters. The trend continues today with artists such as Takashi Murakami and KAWS.
It’s clear that Özgür is always willing to take on a sensitive target, including one mocking the usefulness of therapy for certain individuals, featuring a man who suggests it takes many years of therapy just so he can say he hates himself out loud.
With stories of political corruption in the world, greater wealth concentration and new inane online trends, there’s clearly still a need for artists with satirical bite, and their potential inspirations seem endless. However, the world evolves, I’m sure Yiğit Özgür will be ready to send it up with his playful, incisive drawings.
Yiğit Özgür: Chronicles of the Everyday was shown at Versus Arts in London from 5-13 June 2026. More information about the artist may be found on his Instagram.
All images are copyrighted and courtesy of Yiğit Özgür.
