The bizarre, surreal and grotesque illustrations by Elif Varol Ergen

Elif Varol Ergen is an artist from Turkey who uses several techniques such as acrylic, ink, silkscreening, digital imaging and mixed media. The result of her work are bizarre, surreal and grotesque images, where nightmare creatures have multiple eyes and mouths, where children are everything but innocent, and where the predominant colors are the red from blood and the fading blue from lifeless corpses.

Beginning in 2010, these disturbing images were inspired by the artist's thoughts about children violence, from and towards children, sexual, physical and psychological abuses. As an example of what started her reflections, she tells us the case of a young girl, 11 years old, who killed her mother in cold blood and went to school after that.

The monstrous and grotesque creatures from Ergen's art are distorted reflexes of what these kids have been through. And those kids almost always grow up. And is not rare they become agents of creating more of their own monsters.

The style of Elif Varol Ergen's art remembers me the grotesque style of some japanese artists, such as Suehiro Maruo, who creates his distorted beings as they were legendary monsters and demons (youkais). However, japanese artists seems to generally focus over the erotism in the grotesque, but Ergen seems to concentrate her focus in symbolic and psychological implications.

Appreciate the bizarre, surreal and grotesque illustrations by Elif Varol Ergen:

Images from Elif Varol Ergen's website. Indicated by Empty Kingdom - Elif Varol Ergen.