Tuçe Yasak

Critic

Tuçe Yasak has been following light since her move from Istanbul to New York in 2009, creating over 100 site-specific light installations for performance in the US and abroad. Yasak received the 2018 BESSIE (...Memoirs of a... Unicorn by Marjani Forte-Saunders) and 2019 BESSIE (Oba Qween Baba King Baba by Ni’Ja Whitson) for Outstanding Visual Design. Among her recent collaborations: The Absolute Future, Wednesday, UGLY, HYSTERIA and BLUE by Raja Feather Kelly and the feath3r theory, NOTHING series by Autumn Knight, Force! by Anna Martine Whitehead, Black Life Chord Changes by Angie Pittman, This Bridge Called My Ass by Miguel Gutierrez, Haint Blu by Urban Bush Women, and Malady of Death by Hague Yang.

Light, movement and architecture intertwine in Yasak’s work to support space making and storytelling. Her Light Journals were presented in March 2021 by Ars Nova, and she was one of the 2021 resident artists at JACK Brooklyn. Her first solo installation, light is generous, was presented by Five Myles Gallery in July 2022. Yasak was one of the 2023 resident artists at the Watermill Arts Center in PLACE, where she created The light comes through the heart of darkness, an installation as homage to the lives lost in the February 2022 earthquake in Turkey. Her installation, Strings, was presented by Five Myles Gallery in May 2025.