Kezban Arca Batıbeki

Kezban Arca Batıbeki (b. 1956, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist based in Istanbul who works in painting, photography, installation and short film. Her subjects are women and popular culture. Among her paintings is a canvas worked in acrylic-based mixed media and embroidered by hand with sequins and beads. She also writes about art.

She studied graphic arts at Marmara University. She went on to work as illustrator, art director and photo editor for the magazines Sanat and Kadın. Her design work took in book and magazine covers, children's books, and posters for cinema and theatre. She also worked on a short film for children for Swedish television. For feature films she handled art direction, title sequences and set photography. WADJET (2024) is a canvas of 90 by 110 centimetres in mixed media with sequins and beads. It frees the snake from the idea of sin that monotheistic stories attach to it. Instead the work ties the creature to wisdom, healing and creative power, and to the cycle of life.

Her solo exhibitions include Nest at Leila Heller Gallery, New York (2014), and Vaad Edilmemiş Topraklar at Pilevneli Mecidiyeköy (2019). Pulp Fiction 3 followed in 2022 at Cue Art Space and Bomontiada. KEZBAN'ın Nadire Kabinesi opened at MeshRu Istanbul in 2025. She took part in the Baku Biennial (2008) and the Mardin Biennial (2010). Group exhibitions include Hayal ve Hakikat at Istanbul Modern (2011) and Maziye Bakma Mevzu Derin (2021) at Odunpazarı Modern Museum, Eskişehir. In 2026 she showed WADJET in A Disenchanted World, curated by Derya Yücel at Lenzart Space, Istanbul. She has twice received the Esbank Grand Prize.