Art & Design
Selected stories on contemporary art and design
After Earthquakes, Art in Istanbul Takes on New Resonance
Four exhibitions planned prior to the devastating earthquakes grapple with presciently timely themes of loss, healing and transformation. (Hyperallergic)
Photographing History’s Silences and Gaps
A former journalist, Sim Chi Yin came to question the primacy of archival sources after realizing the deliberate decisions behind what gets included or excluded. (Hyperallergic)
5th Mardin Biennial Confronts Dispossession at an Ancient Crossroads
The 5th Mardin Biennial explores models of co-existence and regeneration within inhospitable environments. (Ocula)
A Kurdish Artist’s Creative Resistance From Behind Bars
Fatoş İrwen’s solo exhibition includes works she made from available materials while jailed on flimsy evidence. (Hyperallergic)
Stereo Sound – Echoes of the Pergamon Altar Return to Turkey
A sound installation by the Istanbul-based artist Cevdet Erek draws on the complex history of the ancient monument. (Apollo)
Ottoman Architecture Inspires Kengo Kuma’s Contemporary Art Museum in Turkey
The Odunpazarı Modern Museum draws from the traditional wooden houses of Eskişehir, an aspiring arts hub. (Metropolis)
Artists Fill Six-Story Istanbul House with 672 Hours of Performance Art
The house will become a research space and library in a country where performance art remains underdeveloped, and many artists fear persecution. (Hyperallergic)
Making Meaning from the Mundane
The pathbreaking Turkish artist Füsun Onur finally gets a comprehensive retrospective worthy of her long career, now showing at ARTER. (Selections)
Unearthing Balat
Two artists dig deep into the Istanbul neighborhood, interviewing residents about its past and present and speculating about its future. (Time Out Istanbul)
Displacement, Migration are at the Heart of Istanbul Exhibit
Felekşan Onar’s glass sculptures prompt viewers to meditate on issues of identity, belonging, displacement, and the meaning of home. (The Markaz Review)
At This Year’s Istanbul Biennial, the City Is the Real Star
This long-delayed edition of the event puts Istanbul front and centre and encourages visitors to rediscover and reinvent its public spaces. (Apollo)
Looking for the Lost Women of Modern Turkish Art
In Istanbul, an exhibition of works created by women between 1850 and 1950 has made some impressive finds. (Apollo)
For Kurdish Artists in Turkey, Simply Making Work is a Political Act
“Artists can’t make work freely without thinking, ‘If I do this, I might lose my job, I might go to jail.’” (Apollo)
Miniature Painting Enters the Modern Age
For the contemporary artists in this group exhibition at Istanbul’s Pera Museum, a traditional form turns out to be ripe for reinvention. (Apollo)
Weaving a New Future for a Traditional Turkish Craft
A small group of fine artists are bringing renewed attention to the practice of weaving by incorporating it into their artworks. (Hyperallergic)
New Arts Hub is Taking Root in an Industrial Istanbul Neighbourhood
The high-profile opening of the new ARTER museum has created a vast showcase for contemporary art in an industrial part of Istanbul. (Lonely Planet)
Art and the City
With the right to public space the hot issue of the summer, a look at the 13th Istanbul Biennial’s plans to focus on the public domain. (Time Out Istanbul)
Sibel Horada: What's Lost and Left Behind
The removal of outdoor seating at bars and restaurants in one Istanbul district has drawn outcry, but artist Sibel Horada says some street chairs remain sacrosanct. (Selections)
The Stage as a ‘Living Concept’ in Turkey’s Performance Art
While The 90s Onstage looks back to a dynamic moment in Turkey’s performance art scene, Ata Doğruel’s “Light Source” reflects on the present. (Hyperallergic)
The Contemporary Photographers Obsessed With the Passing of Time
Bruno Vandermeulen and Danny Veys use 19th-century processes to bring a very modern sensibility to archaeological sites in Anatolia. (Apollo)
The Artists Collecting Lullabies From All Corners of the Globe
These comforting songs are freighted with cultural and personal memories – and artists are working to preserve them. (Apollo)
Walk With Me: A Performance Artist Adapts to the Pandemic
Unable to travel to Istanbul for a residency, artist Alisa Oleva asked women there to take her along remotely. (Hyperallergic)
The Artist Walking Between Two Seas in Istanbul
Serkan Taycan’s 40-mile route traverses rarely seen landscapes, now at risk due to a proposed shipping canal. (Hyperallergic)
Revisiting Photography’s First Road Trip
Ten Turkish artists follow daguerreotypist Frédéric Auguste Antoine Goupil-Fesquet’s 180-year-old journey through the Eastern Mediterranean in A Road Story: 80 Years of Photography. (Hyperallergic)
The Hidden Side of Turkey's Urban Transformation, Told in 10 Pictures
Winners of the Young Photographers Award competition in Turkey capture the country's abandoned spaces, overcrowded cities, and the people left behind. (CityLab)
Things Unseen
Artist Trevor Paglen is watching the people (and machines) who are watching us. His latest project is a “site-aware” installation in Istanbul. (Time Out Istanbul)
From the Water Cooler to the Water Colour
The line between office and gallery is becoming increasingly blurred in Turkey’s booming contemporary art scene, as two Istanbul venues show. (Gulf Life)
More articles on architecture and design
>> Back to School: Many of the most intriguing works in the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial draw from, or play with, types or sources of knowledge that are generally little-valued. (Disegno, 2018; no longer online)
>> An Archaeology of Design: The 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial posits design as a 200,000-year-long dialogue between homo sapiens and their creations that has had far-reaching consequences for us and for the rest of the world, if not the universe. (Disegno, 2016; no longer online)
>> When Genius Isn't Enough: What makes for outstanding universal value? The complexities of this question were laid bare in the contrasting fortunes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier at UNESCO’s most recent heritage conference. (Disegno, 2016; no longer online)
>> The Istanbul That Might Have Been, and Might Still Be: A book of unbuilt Ottoman-era architectural and engineering plans sheds surprising light on the current building boom in Turkey’s largest city. (CityLab, 2013)
More articles on art and artists
>> The Mechanical Fictions of Server Demirtaş: For the past two decades, the artist has devoted himself to devising intricate kinetic sculptures and building by hand all of the motorized machinery that allows them to express themselves in ways both poignant and playful. (Holiday, 2023; pdf)
>> This Stunning Ottoman Villa in Istanbul is Open to Visitors for the First Time with Contemporary Art Exhibition: The sumptuous Abdülmecid Efendi Köşkü in Istanbul has been opened to the public as a showcase for a temporary exhibition of provocative contemporary art belonging to Ömer Koç, one of Turkey’s top collectors. (Lonely Planet, 2017; no longer online)
>> Istanbul's Biggest Art Festival Branches Out to Greece: The Istanbul Biennial has taken its own 15th-edition theme of ‘a good neighbour’ to heart, expanding internationally this fall to neighbouring Greece. (Lonely Planet, 2017; no longer online)
>> In the Mix: A new multipurpose space in the Tophane neighbourhood aims to stir things up in Istanbul’s art scene. (Time Out Istanbul, 2013)
>> Turkish Artist Paints Cuts, Bruises on Old Masters: Derya Kilic‘s recent photography exhibition confronted viewers with a series of well-known figures — women painted by the likes of Salvador Dali, Edvard Munch, Leonardo Da Vinci and Gustav Klimt – each bearing the marks of violence on their faces and bodies. (Women's eNews, 2013)
>> The Watched Photographer: To learn from globe-trotting Art Wolfe, the first thing you've got to do is keep up. (Sierra, 2007)
>> Restoration Art: Works by artists Andy Goldsworthy, Terry Evans, and Joel Sternfeld focus on nature’s power to reclaim. (Sierra, 2003)
>> Engineering Culture: Is the Internet democratizing art, or dumbing it down? (SOMA, 2001; pdf)
>> Birthplace of Multimedia Arts: Bell Labs, known for early innovations such as the laser, also married art and technology in a free-spirited collaboration. New York event hails the first interactive creators. (Wired, 1998)
>> Looking South to the Future: A group of San Francisco artists uses psychoanalytic technique, satire, and anonymity to spark thought – if not discussion – about interpersonal and personal-techno relationships. (Wired, 1998)