Born in Fatsa, on the shores of the Black Sea, trained at the Marmara University in Istanbul, Onay Akbas has exhibited his paintings since 1985, when he belonged to the group of "Maltepe Painters". Living in Paris since 1988, he was related to Nouvel Expressionisme then to Figuration Libre, and has exhibited alongside the group Le Chaînenon Manquant. His works are regularly presented in Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Miami, Seoul, Lyon, Grenoble, Istanbul, Ankara, etc.

"Proceeding in cycles, Akbas practice figurative painting but symbolic, consisting of parts of bright colors, enhanced dynamic pattern, structured with a playful. Either geometry, a kaleidoscopic universe. The human situations always represented underline life is a game; how to survive requires staging,. how much flexibility and imagination used to sneak into 1'existence to resist the powers and preserve the poetry of childhood "

"After the Scarecrow series (started in 1991) came that of Le Monde Théâtre (1992). Then, Les Faux Prophètes (1995); Game, Theater and Cinema (1996); L'Instant et La Mémoire (2000); Games , Toys, Power (2003); and, in 2007, Mes Inachevés. The first works of this series were presented in Istanbul, Ankara and Berlin, then in Paris. Renewing the construction of paintings, this series develops a pictorial concept which consists in leaving unfinished a part of the image, a geometrizing fragment. This exclusively graphic part, camped among others, they, colored, induces a dizziness at the heart of the composition; capturing the spectator, invited to imagine what is missing in place of this breathing.
Based on the pictorial experiences of Turner and Cézanne concerning the incompleteness, resulting from the reflection of Marcel Duchamp for whom “it is the spectator who makes the painting”, and that of Friedrich Nietzsche according to which “the man is unfinished », This new adventure questions the illusionism of any painting. And the relativity of all truth. "
Françoise Monnin, Paris, May 2009