Kaan Ege Önal, born in 1996 in Kütahya, Turkey, grew up in a family of artists whose passion for traditional Turkish arts and crafts had a significant influence on his own artistic development. Even as a child, he spent a lot of time in his father's ceramics studio or in his mother's painting studio, who decorated the ceramics made by his father with traditional Turkish motifs. This early proximity to art shaped Önal and awakened in him a deep fascination for artistic creation.
In 2010, he began his formal artistic training at the High School of Fine Arts, which he successfully completed in 2014. He then deepened his studies in painting at Mersin University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts. In 2017, he moved to Germany to further develop his artistic skills and gain a new perspective. Since 2022, Önal has exhibited his works in numerous German cities and has already received several awards.
For years, Önal devoted himself to creating profound and confrontational artworks that address social inequalities and political conflicts and encourage viewers to engage with societal realities. In early 2024, he made a significant shift in his artistic direction and began to delve more deeply into his own identity and existence - traditional themes that had accompanied him in his family since childhood.
Since 2024, Kaan Ege Önal's paintings explore the relationship between humans and culture by bringing traditional motifs from different cultures to life on canvases. In doing so, he reveals the universal language of cultural identity and synthesis and celebrates the diversity of human experiences. Each of his paintings is an ode to transcultural humanity and shows the deep, inseparable connection between humans and culture.
With his academic knowledge of figurative painting and cultural symbolism, Önal creates works that are both aesthetically pleasing and profound in content. By combining traditional motifs with figurative representations, he develops a universal visual language that transcends cultural boundaries and unites humanity in all its diversity. His goal is to create an atmosphere in which this diversity is perceived as an enrichment and a source of inspiration.
