Roksan Kohen Parfitt
Roksan is a visual artist and workshop facilitator originally from Türkiye. After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ä°stanbul, she pursued her passion as an independent studio artist and art educator for several years. In 2012, she immigrated to Turtle Island, settling on the land now known as Galiano Island, which she gratefully has called home ever since. Over the years, Roksan has showcased her work in solo and group exhibitions in Ä°stanbul, Bodrum, Vancouver, and Galiano Island, sharing her evolving artistic journey with diverse audiences. Her multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, painting, collaborative art projects, and community facilitation. In addition to her artistic practice, Roksan is the founder and program coordinator of the Yellowhouse Art Centre Society. This vibrant community arts hub fosters cultural engagement through, events, workshops and collaborative projects since 2017.
Roksan’s current work explores the interplay of time and creation. Through live, improvised drawings in response to sound and movement, she captures the dynamic relationship between time, expression, and process. Each piece serves as a visual record of these unique, ephemeral sessions.
Fascinated by the concept of time — its construction and its reality — Roksan delves into the interconnectedness of nature and forces that shape existence. She believes that past, present, and future coexist, and through her art, she aims to reveal these layers: the echoes of a place, the essence of a song, or the ancestral stories embodied in a person. In creating, Roksan steps into a timeless zone, becoming a vessel to tell stories and experiences through her ways. Her work invites viewers to uncover the unseen connections that unite us across time, place and space.
Roksan’s series of works mainly explores humans interconnected relationships with their contemporary environments and the processes of transformations through time and generations. The sentence; “All things linger, all things last “from the novel “Jerusalem” by Alan Moore, has inspired her recent body of work about Time. Her artwork includes drawing studies from nature, research of the recent studies about the concepts of time, solo and collaborative artistic experiments, drawings with pen, ink and watercolours as well as paintings with acrylics and oils.
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She sees landscapes of a nonlinear time on the surfaces she that works. She layers the past, present and future all at once and on top of each other. She builds the moments within centuries and vice versa. Every mark stays and spontaneously forms the random scenery of Roksan’s work. Organically growing lines and shapes marks her imaginary lands permanently. They fill the surfaces and the space overwhelmingly with stories which could be seen from a different perspective each time they are looked at, allowing the onlooker to question and consider what they already know, remember or forgot in time.
“I daily sketch as a foundation for my work. I collect imagery from both outside and insight though I have no set plan when l start a piece. I take a conscious breath or two, I stare, see, draw and repeat until the drawing or painting is complete. I make a point of building the work mark by mark without any regard to aesthetics, morality and reason. I eschew seeing the big picture and try to remain present at the moment. I take the responsibility for each freely appearing line and the surface that is on. I follow the patterns and shapes that form spontaneously in front of my eyes. This process reveals stories that are interconnected and unknown to my consciousness. It helps me to practice awareness, acceptance, openness and patience. To me, it is both a fun adventure and a serious attempt to connect with my complex being. The surprising results always entertain my perception and often guide me to critical thinking about today’s world.”
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Education
1999 - 2004
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, BFA
Exhibitions / Performances
2024 Ambient Etc. @ Deli Vancouver , BC
2024 With Dan Gaucher Trio, Galiano Island , BC
2024 With Caitlin Hertzcarrick, Galiano Island, BC
2023 With Ban Brown and Lisa Simpson, Galiano Island BC
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Solo
2019
Galiano Inn Art Gallery, Galiano Island, BC
2018
Galiano Public Library, Galiano Island, BC
2017
Luppollo Brewing Company, Vancouver, BC
2015
"Wonder", Babes in the Woods Restaurant, Galiano Island, BC
2013
"Search For A Better World", Insight Art Gallery, Galiano Island, BC
2012
"Homo Urbanus", Raw Canvas, Vancouver, BC
2012
"New Spirits", Ottoman Marina Gallery, Bodrum / Turkey
2011
District Fover Gallery, District Hall, North Vancouver, BC
Group
2020
“Art on The Islands”, Southern Gulf Islands Arts Council, Mayne Island, BC
2019
“In a Small Way”, Galiano Inn, Galiano Island, BC
2019
Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC
2018
Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC
2017
Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC
2017
“In a Small Way”, Manzanita Gallery, Galiano Island, BC
2016
Sooke Art Show, Sooke, BC
2014
"Neither/Nor" Curated by Fay Nass, Ayden Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2011
“Psycedelica Moderna”, Hall Gallery, East Vancouver, BC
2011
“Street dance”, Cityscape Community Art Space, North Vancouver
2010
Open Studio, Eastside Culture Crawl, Octopus Studios, Vancouver, BC
2010
“Art in the City”, Westend Community Centre, Vancouver, BC
2010
“Spring”, Istanbul / Turkey
2009
/ “Illus 1”, Lumen Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2009
“Where we start from”, On The Rise Artist Collective Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2009
“BC Art Show”, Heritage Hall, Vancouver, BC
2007
10th International Biennial Performance, Ha Za Vu Zu Project, Istanbul / Turkey
2007
“Young Portraits”, Tesvikiye Art Gallery, Istanbul / Turkey
2005
“Young Portraits”, Tesvikiye Art Gallery, Istanbul / Turkey
2005
“Solidarity with Children”, Union Français Cihangir, Istanbul / Turkey
2003
Cey Fine Arts, Istanbul / Turkey
2002
Yunus Emre Cultural Centre, Istanbul / Turkey
2002
“October Passage - Mild Attack”, Gallery X, Istanbul, Turkey