The art life of Mustafa Okan, who will meet the Istanbul audience for the first time with the exhibition held at the Milli Reasürans Art Gallery, began in the 1980s by drawing cartoons for various culture and art magazines while he was studying at the Gazi University Painting Department. His interest in drawing and caricature led him to paint in black and white in the mid-1990s. Although he studied painting and made a career in this field, he benefited from the comic world and the humor world of caricature while developing his own painting. Finally, he started working on a series of stories with a kind of comic book flavor, fantasy, strong dark humor and references to the current. Against the notion of "painting should not tell a story", which is common in the art world, Okan emphasized this aspect by naming his exhibitions as stories.

After her first exhibition "Far Country Paintings" opened in 2002 in Ankara, the exhibition she opened in Adana in 2003 was called "Twenty Little Stories for Adults". In the following years, he brought the role of "storyteller" to the fore with the imaginary names he gave to his paintings. Among these, fantastic names such as “The Soldier and the Angel at the Gate of Heaven”, “The Camel Trainer and the Decent Camel”, “The Cloudy Country with the Flying Donkey”, “The Abyss-Making Master’s and the Great Machine”, as well as the direct reference to very familiar stories such as “Crows and Foxes” There were those who did. In the meantime, "King and Influenza Bird", "Rite for Capital on Television with the Economists of the Cripple King", "King and King", "King Working", "King and His Advisors" A Close Friend”, “The King, His Dog, Jester and Counselors”, “Short Black Stories” and “Fire”, which include the paintings “Mr. B's Eastern Expedition and Oiled Time Machine” and “Western Caravan for an Eastern Desert” His Stories” series had strong black humor elements that made direct references to current political references.

Mustafa Okan's works, which will be exhibited at Milli Reasürans Art Gallery between 6-18 April 2009, consist of his latest works. This scope of the exhibition gives the painting circles of Istanbul the opportunity to get to know the artist they will meet for the first time. In the book prepared for the exhibition, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu's fantastic "such a story" titled "The Kingdom of Dark Sleep", inspired by Okan's paintings, accompanies.

Born in Ankara, Mustafa Okan graduated from Gazi University Painting Department in 1984. She completed her master's degree at Hacettepe University in 1991 and completed her Proficiency in Art study in 1996. He got the title of assistant professor in 1996 and associate professor in 2008 at Çukurova University, where he started to work as a lecturer in 1993. He still works at the same university and continues his art works in Ankara and Adana, apart from some group exhibitions and events he has attended in Istanbul.

Mustafa Okan, titled “Pictures of Far Country” (2002, Ankara), “Twenty Little Stories for Adults” (2003, Adana), “Short Black Stories for Adults” (2007, Ankara), “Fire Stories” (2007, Ankara) held personal exhibitions. He participated in group exhibitions at home and abroad. His articles on artists who produce in the fields of painting, sculpture and caricature were published in various magazines, including Adam Sanat, Virgül and Güldiken.