Tuba Şamlı

Tuba Şamlı was born in Ankara in 1978. She draws with acrylic pen directly on paper, building dense compositions line by line and dot by dot, with no way to erase a mark. Her works range from single sheets to diptychs, triptychs and drawings in several parts.

Şamlı studied painting at İstanbul Avni Akyol Anatolian Fine Arts High School. She went on to study graphic design at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Mimar Sinan University. She then spent many years in advertising as an art director and creative director, and also works in illustration, bookmaking and design. A scuba diver for many years, she takes much of her imagery from life under water.

Her first solo exhibition, The Drowned Gods, opened at x-ist in Istanbul in 2026. Its drawings from that year place myths and modern disasters on the sea bed. They include YAMATA no OROCHI, PROMETHEUS, TITANS and the triptych LEGEND, which follows Odysseus's voyage in fourteen stages.