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.

A surfer runs down the beach past hundreds of Barbie dolls comprising the sculpture 'Wave 2' by West Australian artist Annette Thas on Tamarama Beach during the 19th annual Sculptures by the Sea exhibition in Sydney, October 23, 2015. Sydney's coastal walk between Bondi and Tamarama has been transformed into a temporary sculpture park featuring over 100 sculptures from Australian and international artists, billed as the largest free sculpture exhibition in the world. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

Jake Paul (left) lands a punch to the face of Anderson Silva during a boxing match at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona on October 29, 2022. (Photo by Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)

Sabine Marcelis stands beside her project “RA” during The Edition III at Pyramids of Giza, in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt on October 26, 2023. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

Some 1200 windsurfers take the start of the 21th edition of the Defi Wind in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Gruissan in southern France, on May 19, 2023. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP Photo)

A motorcyclist ferries a pillion rider sitting on goods in Phnom Penh on June 6, 2017. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

Donald Trump is flanked by Playmates at a party celebrating Playboy magazine's 45th anniversary at the Life Club in New York on December 3, 1998. (Photo by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

Performers dressed as Pikachu, the popular animation Pokemon series character, perform in the Pikachu parade in Yokohama on August 7, 2016. Some 50 life-size Pikachu characters, the most famous from the Pokemon game, marched along the city’s waterfront street as visitors took mobile phone pictures and videos of them in scorching sunshine. Some participants said they attended the event to search for rare characters of Pokemon – a word short for “pocket monster” – for the megahit smartphone app, which was launched in several countries around the world last month. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)