Silent Presence

Silent Presence is a solo exhibition of new paintings by Ebru Duruman at Dirimart Pera in Istanbul, running from 17 September to 25 October 2026. It is the artist's second solo show with the gallery. The exhibition brings together six oil paintings on canvas, all dated 2026, ranging in size from 120 x 90 cm to 190 x 311 cm.

The paintings deal with the self and with how experience alters it. Human figures fuse with forests, rivers and stone, and landscapes seem to grow out of the body. Some figures knot into one another, while faces recur, break apart or fade from view. Across the six canvases, the line between body, memory and landscape becomes hard to draw.

In the gallery's account, the works began in a period of personal change for the artist, but they look past her own story towards a common experience of transformation. The exhibition poses one question: how does a person stay themselves once life has changed them? The paintings answer that the earlier self is not erased. It lingers as a trace, altered yet still there. The six works are Taken By Green, What Moves Through, Surrender, Becoming Wild, Entangled and What Remains.

Duruman was born in Istanbul in 1992 and trained in fine art and architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 2015. Her painting moves between abstraction and figuration, with vivid colour, fluid lines and forceful brushwork. Her first solo show at Dirimart, Fluid Desire, was held at Dirimart Pera in 2023. She lives and works in Johannesburg. Silent Presence opened on Thursday 17 September 2026 at 6pm and is open every day except Monday.