Can Altay
- Nationality
- Turkish
- Based
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Born
- 1975, Ankara, Turkey
- Practice
- Sculpture, Photography, Installation
Biography
Born in Ankara in 1975, Can Altay lives and works in Istanbul. He works in sculpture, photography and installation, and his projects take form as built settings, exhibitions and printed publications. He teaches at Istanbul Bilgi University's Faculty of Architecture.
Altay's research centres on public space: what it is for, what it means, and how it is arranged and rearranged. He calls his arrangements "settings". His public projects began with PARK: bir ihtimal in Istanbul and The Church Street Partners' Gazette with The Showroom in London, both in 2010. Distributed followed for Frieze Projects in London in 2012, and Inner Space Station in New York in 2013. In 2013 he edited Ahali: An Anthology for Setting a Setting, published by Bedford Press in London.
He completed a doctorate at Bilkent University in 2004, in art, design and architecture, and also studied critical studies at Malmö Art Academy and Lund University. Solo exhibitions include Sala Rekalde in Bilbao (2006), Spike Island in Bristol (2007), Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (2008) and Casco in Utrecht (2011). His work has been shown at the Havana and Istanbul biennials and at the Walker Art Center, the Van Abbemuseum, ZKM and MoMA PS1.
CV
Education
- 2004PhD, Art, Design and Architecture, Bilkent University, Ankara
- 2004Postgraduate studies, Critical Studies, Malmö Art Academy and Lund University, Malmö
Solo exhibitions
- 2016VFI, Virgolo Future Institute, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano
- 2015Split Horizon (Domestic Disobedience), Oktem & Aykut, Istanbul
- 2015Can Altay, Arcade, London
- 2013Inner Space Station, Seward Park Branch, New York Public Library, New York
- 2012Distributed, Arcade, London
- 2012Distributed, Frieze Projects East, London
- 2011COHAB: An assembly of spare parts, Casco, Utrecht
- 2010The Church Street Partners' Gazette, The Showroom, London
- 2008Setting a Setting / Forecasting a broken past, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
- 2007Ey Ahali! Setting a Setting / Letting a Setting Go, Spike Island, Bristol
- 2006No Bar, Just Bottles, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao
Group exhibitions
- 2015Istanbul. Passion, Joy, Fury, MAXXI, Rome
- 2013Hot Spot Istanbul, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich
- 2011That's the Way We Do It, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz
- 2009The Columns Held Us Up, Artists Space, New York
- 2007How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco
- 2006A Tale of Two Cities, Busan Biennale, Busan
- 2005Day Labor, P.S.1 MoMA, New York
- 2005EindhovenIstanbul, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
- 2005Normalization, Platform Garanti, Istanbul
- 2004Call me Istanbul, ZKM, Karlsruhe
- 20034D: Four dimensions, Four decades, 8th Havana Biennial, Havana
- 2003Poetic Justice, 8th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul
- 2003How Latitudes Become Forms, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Awards and grants
- 2008Artist in Residence, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
- 2008Artist in Residence (IMP), Platform Garanti, Istanbul
- 2007International Artist Fellowship, Spike Island, Bristol
- 2003Research Scholarship, Swedish Institute, Istanbul
Public collections
- Arter, Istanbul
Exhibitions on Artmena
Documents
The same biography, statement and CV as print-ready PDFs, for press and exhibition files.
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