Yaşam Şaşmazer

Yaşam Şaşmazer (b. 1980, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist based in Istanbul who works in sculpture and installation. Her work looks at how human beings, non-human entities and nature act on one another. Her figurative sculpture centres on the human body. Some faces are recognisable, while other bodies are anonymous, amorphous or amputated. She works mainly in wood, clay, paper and papier-mâché. She often adds organic and found matter such as mushrooms, seaweed, lichen, earth, rocks, branches and roots.

Metanoia was shown at Istanbul's Tophane-i Amire Culture and Art Center (2014). Solos of that title followed at BERLINARTPROJECTS, Berlin (2015), and the Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles (2016). Her solo show either/or at Zilberman, Istanbul (2021), also included watercolour paintings. Udagan (2026) has a body of coiled Wisteria sinensis trunks. Its title is a term for female shamans in Mongolian culture. The work also uses a wooden ladder, a prosthetic leg, silicone, gauze, moss, soil and a hanging scale.

She took a BFA (2003) and an MFA (2006) in sculpture at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul. Her solo shows include Strangely Familiar, Çağla Cabaoğlu Gallery, Istanbul (2009), and Dark Matter, Kunstverein Ingolstadt (2017). So flows the tide of things opened at Zilberman Berlin in 2025. Group shows include Confessions of Dangerous Minds at the Saatchi Gallery, London (2011), and Glasstrees Gotika, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). At Arter, Istanbul, she was in Locus Solus (2022), In Its Own Shadow (2023) and Suppose You Are Not (2024). In 2026 she showed in Beneath the Same Blue at İstanbul Modern and The Promises of Monsters at Hara, Istanbul. Her work is in the collections of İstanbul Modern, Arter, MOCAK, Krakow, and the Museo Pino Pascali, Bari. She is represented by Zilberman, Istanbul and Berlin.