10 Contemporary Turkish Artists You Should Know

The Turkish art scene is booming. Beyond institutions like Istanbul Modern, the Istanbul Biennial and Contemporary Istanbul, a flourishing contemporary art scene is making a lot of noise within the wider MENA art scene. Contemporary Turkish artists engage with tradition and innovation, bringing Turkiye’s layered histories, cultural dialogues and social complexities into fresh light. Keep reading to learn about just some of the contemporary Turkish artists you should know.

Taner Ceylan

Taner Ceylan is famous for his hyper-realistic paintings that touch on cultural memory, historical narrative, identity and sexuality. His work challenges taboos and often mixes European painting traditions with Ottoman subjects. He is one of Turkiye's most influential contemporary artists and is part of many prominent collections.

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Istanbul. Water is often incorporated in her work as a metaphor flowing between the seen and unseen. Her works explore the ideas of otherness, invisibility, and absence to encourage conversations around identity, memory, space, and time. She exhibited as part of Armenia's Golden Lion winning pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.

Devrim Erbil

Devrim Erbil is one of the most renowned Turkish living artists. Born in 1937, he was the founder of the "Soyutcu 7ler" (Seven Abstractionists) in 1959, and later founded the "Mavi Group" (Blue Group) in 1963 with his contemporaries. His work is credited as being a bridge between global abstract art language and regional Anatolian cultural motifs. In 1991 he was awarded the title of State Artist of Turkiye and has held many professor roles throughout Turkiye's most prominent universities and art schools.

Nil Yalter

Nil Yalter was born in 1938 in Cairo to a Turkish family, moving to Istanbul at the age of 4. Her work spans drawing, installation, video, and performance, and she even walked to India in the 1950s as a pantomime artist. Having moved to Paris in the 1960s, her work comments on women's labour, temporary dwelling, migration, exile, and the status of the body. Yalter is one of the first Turkish women to work in multimedia and video art and was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.

Gözde İlkin

Gözde İlkin’s work is predominantly textile based, working with embroidery, drawing, and painting. She incorporates collected fabrics like curtains, bed sheets and tablecloths, engaging with domesticity, gender, memory, and urban transformation. Her constructions build narratives where textiles, threads, and bodies act as metaphors for interconnection, transformation, and unresolved tensions. She has exhibited internationally including at the 13th Gwangju Biennale.

Halil Altindere

Halil Altindere was born in Mardin and is of Kurdish origin. His work spans many mediums and he is also an active curator and publisher. Through his work he uses irony, absurdity, and humor to engage with social and cultural codes, and focus on marginalisation. His work crosses local Turkish contexts, often commenting on Kurdish identity and urban life in Istanbul. He has exhibited widely including at documenta 12 and the Berlin Biennale.

Elif Uras

Elif Uras is probably best known for her work with ceramics, working between New York, Istanbul and Iznik. Her work bridges tradition and craft with a fine art practice, often addressing labour, female body, and class, while also giving voice to underrepresented narratives. Her sculptural works often reference the female form, while engaging with prehistoric traditions including that of Iznik ceramics and tiles. Her work is part of major collections including London's Victoria & Albert Museum and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rasim Aksan

Rasim Aksan's work appears like collage but is actually a blend of acrylic, calligraphic ink, airbrush, and marbling paint. His works on paper also incorporate pencils and crayons. His work is highly textured and blends a wealth of images from his own visual archive. His figures often blend historical references with contemporary sources.

Yağız Özgen

Yağız Özgen is a multimedia artist whose work encompasses digital culture, found objects, installation and painting. Object-focused, he questions how materials and systems relation to both painting and the installation environment. Part of the younger generation of Turkish artists, his work questions what it means to be an artist today, questioning how painting, data, objects and space interact with each other.

İhsan Oturmak

İhsan Oturmak was born in Diyarbakir, and much of his work reflects his experiences in southeastern Turkiye. You will often notice his painted figures in uniforms, with his paintings commenting on how spaces of correction, assimilation, and correction function in both contemporary and historical contexts.