Istanbul-based Ali Gulec is a graphic artist with a difference. His surreal illustrations are like identikit drawings aiming to prosecute the material arts. Working on the margins of what is possible with his medium, Gulec's forms, figures, and situations are remarkable for their clarity and strength of purpose, and maintain an iconographic intensity that would make any rock band bereft of an album cover salivate with admiration.

Kashmiri vegetable vendors assemble at a floating market in the interiors of the Dal Lake in Srinagar April 17, 2012. (Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

Afghan men work in a small sweets factory in Kabul, Afghanistan January 5, 2017. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

A man carries schoolchildren on his bicycle on a road in Srinagar, March 28, 2017. (Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

A man exercises in the early morning on a hilltop overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan March 3, 2016. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

An Afghan woman clad in burqa begs in a snow-covered street in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 7, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

A man prepares cookies at a small traditional factory for the Eid al-Adha, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 29, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)