Murat Tolga

Murat Tolga (b. 1966, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist based in Istanbul who works in painting, watercolour and ceramic sculpture. His subjects are human and animal figures, and an animal often holds the middle of the scene. He paints mainly in oil on canvas, with heavy paint and bodies pushed out of shape. Works in the 2026 show run from 25 by 25 to 150 by 200 centimetres. He also paints in watercolour on paper and makes ceramic sculptures fired at 1040°C.

Tolga first worked in graphic design and later turned to painting. Karşılaşma (2021) gathered 41 works. Metafor (2022) paired 33 oil paintings with nine ceramic sculptures, and its subjects included a bull and a cat. Derinlikler (2023) took the sea as its theme, drawing on the many years he spent diving. In several of its 22 works, human figures blend into sea creatures. Sea life returns in the 2026 watercolours. One shows a bearded head beneath an octopus, another a head topped by a red lobster. A third shows a man bearing a big fish over his shoulders. Other paintings gather figures with a violin, a drum, a clarinet and cats before houses.

He graduated in 1990 from the Painting Department of the Atatürk Faculty of Education, Marmara University, Istanbul. He paints in a studio in Caddebostan. His solo shows at Galeri Soyut, Ankara, were Karşılaşma (2021), Metafor (2022) and Derinlikler (2023). Doku Sanat Galleries, Istanbul, held a solo exhibition each year from 2022 to 2026. At Galeri Soyut he took part in Yeni Aralık, a December project show, from 2019 to 2025. His other group shows there include Frekans (2020 to 2025) and Figür/Yorum 7 (2020). He also showed in summer group exhibitions at Doku Sanat Galleries (2023 to 2026).