Antonio Cosentino

In Antonio Cosentino’s paintings, one finds a wealth of images distilled from everyday life, the depths of personal memory, and the visual culture of the artist’s city. His recent exhibitions include Mom I'm Going Out to Pour Some Concrete (with Extrastruggle, Studio-X, Istanbul, 2015), Escape from Marmara Sea: The Stelyanos Hrisopulos (Salt Ulus, Ankara, 2015), Departure Marmara Sea (Bergsen & Bergsen, Istanbul, 2013) and Tin City (Külah, Istanbul, 2013). Having participated in numerous exhibitions both in Turkey and abroad, Cosentino contributed works to Spare Time, Great Work (Platform 3, Munich, 2011), and Tactics of Invisibility (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; Tanas, Berlin; ARTER, Istanbul, 2010-2011) with the collective Hafriyat. The artist entered our list with the vote of Cem Erciyes. The artist’s works are now on display at the group exhibition in MAXXI Museum, “Istanbul: Passion, Joy, Fury.”

Aslı Çavuşoğlu

Aslı Çavuşoğlu lives and works in Istanbul. Her projects look at how cultural and historic concepts are transformed, represented and interpreted by individuals. Çavuşoğlu works in various media, often taking on the roles of translator, writer or consultant in her projects, underscoring the unreliable and subjective nature of our shared histories. The artist was one of the participants of note at the 14th Istanbul Biennial. She was thus put on the list by Refik Akyüz. 

Aslı Narin

Narin studied Visual Arts and Communication Design at Sabanci University and had her MA from Goldsmiths, University of London. currently works as a lecturer in Communication Design Department of Kadir Has University and pursues her PhD in Proficiency in Art in Yildiz Technical University. The artist was at Kasa Gallery with her solo exhibition, “Spin” and later was at Öktem&Aykut Gallery with her solo exhibition, “Flow.” Our contributor Seda Yörüker advises us to follow Narin’s work. 

Ayşe Gül Süter 

Born in 1982, Aysegul Süter studied animation and digital arts in New York's Tisch Schol of the Arts. As a rising emerging artist, she exhibited her videos in many galleries. She continues to work in video, animation and interactive video. The artist was at PG Art Gallery with her solo exhibition, “Motion.” Seda Yörüker says that while Süter did not open a solo exhibition in 2015, her two large-scale projects for the exhibitions “Waves” and the “Plugin” section of CI place her as an important figure in New Media Art. Yörüker adds, “Artists who work between art and science such as Ayşe Gül Süter are important to note.”

Bahadır Baruter

After completing his fine arts education in Mimar Sinan University, Fine Arts Faculty, Baruter started his career as a caricaturist when he was 27 years old and worked for several humor magazines. His solo shows, "Existence Anxiety" (2007), "Your Family Is a Lie Dear" (2012) and "Home, Sweet Home" (2014) took place at x-ist. Baruter will be at x-ist with his solo exhibition, Fatality, opening December 24. Baruter’s works drew viewers’ attention at Contemporary Istanbul this year; he is one of the artists to watch in Ebru Nalan Sülün’s list. 

Cansu Çakar

Cansu Çakar is an artist who currently lives and works in İzmir, Turkey. Having begun her higher education in 2006 at Dokuz Eylül University Traditional Turkish Arts Department, İzmir, Çakar later on went to Moholy-Nagy Arts and Design University, Budapest, to study graphic design. Currently, she runs an independent art studio named Miniature Atelier. The artist participated in the 14th Istanbul Biennial with 100° atelier and participated in the first group exhibition at Creative Cukurcuma, “Neighbor.” Cansu Çakar is one of the names on Saliha Yavuz’s list. 

Ceylan Öztürk

Öztürk was born in Ankara in 1984. She received her undergraduate degree from the Fine Arts Faculty, Sculpture department at Anadolu University and finished her graduate studies in 2011. She has been working in the same department as a faculty member since 2006 and lives and works in Eskişehir and Istanbul. She had her fourth solo exhibition at ALAN Istanbul in February 2015, “History in Lowercase.” She is one of the artists that Emre Zeytinoğlu recommended. 

Çınar Eslek

Çınar Eslek graduated from Mimar Sinan University's Painting department in 2006. She completed her master thesis on the transformation of the bodily pain into artwork as an experience at Marmara University's Painting Department in 2010. Her solo shows include “Away from Certainty” (2013), “Also” (2011), “Parallel Land” (2009), “I'm not Aware” (2008). Most recently, she had her solo exhibition, Koyaanisqatsi at Pg Art Gallery. For Mehmet Kahraman, Çınar Eslek is one of the artists of note in 2015. 

Ege Kanar 

Ege Kanar completed his studies at Sabanci University in Visual Arts and Communication Design and did his graduate studies at the Prag Performance Arts Academy. His works focus on the photographic representation of the notions of memory and space. The artist participated in “Everyone can be a sculptor one day,” exhibition in 2014. He is in the list with Mehmet Kahraman’s vote. 

Erdal İnci

Erdal İnci graduated from Hacettepe Painting Department in 2005. He has been living in Istanbul since 2009 and working in street art, video, and digital arts. His videos from the last two years, which he transforms into the GIF format, have been published on his personal blog. He has participated in group exhibitions and he opened his first solo exhibition “Patterns of Motion” at Bauart Istanbul. He continues to research notions of movement, time, and vibration, sharing his production online. The artist’s video installation, “Berlin Wall: A Data Visualization” was presented at Contemporary Istanbul. The artist’s name was placed on the list with Marcus Graf’s vote. 

Erdoğan Zümrütoğlu 

Erdoğan Zümrütoğlu was born in Konya in 1970. He lives and works in Istanbul and Berlin. The artist’s solo exhibition include, “In Memory of Antonin Artaud,” “A Poet, A Painter,” “Balbals for me,” “Being Stubborn,” “Verses for Earth,” and “Or.” He was at The Empire Project with his last exhibition, “Dark Matter.” He is one of the artists on Marcus Graf’s list. 

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan Graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting department in 2006. The artist uses the notion of the ‘other’ and combines it with the concepts of absence and invisibility, in order to compose an imaginary connection between identity, memory, space & time through “the other”.  Büyüktaşçıyan’s are currently exhibited at the group exhibition “Istanbul: Passion, Joy, Fury” at the MAXXI Museum. Cem Erciyes and Seda Yörüker put Hera Büyüktaşçıyan on their lists of the most interesting artists of 2015.

Gizem Akkoyunoğlu

Gizem Akkoyunoğlu’s first solo exhibition was “And Every Step on the Road” at Sanatorium. She did worked on the exhibition, “The Story of the Shadow,” together with Orhan Yıldız. She graduated from the Painting Department at Dokuz Eylül Fine Arts Faculty. She continues her graduate studies at the same school and department. She is also one of the founders of the independent art and culture initiative in Izmir, Input/Output. And she enters our list through Saliha Yavuz’s suggestion. 

Kadir Akyol

Born in Mardin, Kadir Akyol studied painting at the Mersin University Fine Arts Faculty. He completed his graduate studies at the Ankara Gazi University Painting Department. The artist participated in the exhibition, “Image as a Phenomenon.” He is one of the 25 artists to watch, according to Ebru Nalan Sülün. 

Mehmet Ali Boran

Artist Mehmet Ali Boran produces his works by converging universal values and local experiences, interpreting individual and social values’ being in exile, the nomadism of talent and cumulative knowledge, the processes of building, destroying, and re-building societies. The artist uses sculpture, installation, and video. He recently had a solo exhibition at Videoist Mardin called “Come on Let’s Try Again.” Boran is one of the names on Emre Zeytinoğlu’s list.

Mehtap Baydu

Graduated in 2000 from the Department of Sculpture at the Fine Arts Faculty, Hacettepe University. Between 2001 and 2002, she assisted Prof. Rahmi Aksungur in bringing about the 'Monumental Sculpture Arrangement of the History of the Republic’ at the Ankara State Cemetery. Between 2002 and 2005 she continued her artistic endeavour in Germany as well as in Turkey.  In 2010, she completed her master’s in 2010, at Kunsthochshule Kassel and settled in Frankfurt. The artist’s last exhibition, Cocoon, took place at Kaleri Nev. Nazlı Pektaş says that she encountered the artist’s work at the Mardin Biennial and was drawn to the artist’s paper sculptures. 

Özge Topçu

Born in 1987 in Kırklareli, Özge Topçu deals with the construction of modernist national identity and architectural topics. Her work La Turquie Construit was selected for Mamut Art Project and she won the first place award in 2014 for the Rotary Art Prize. She was a finalist in the Borders Orbits 15-16 as “New Generation Artists in Turkey.” She participated in the group exhibition “Fine Tuned and Plural” at Kuad Gallery. Emre Zeytinoğlu added this artist to our list and it appears that we’ll hear her name often in the near future. 

Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt

The duo completed their studies at the Hacettepe University Sculpture Department in 2001. Günyol & Kunt went on to Frankfurt Art School and received their master’s degrees from here. They have been collaborating since 2005, opening more than 10 solo exhibitions and participating in numerous international exhibitions. Their last exhibition was at Dirimart in December 2015, “moment-by-moment.” Nazlı Pektaş says that Günyol & Kunt were among the most interesting artists this year. 

Recep Serbest 

Having finished his studies at the Marmara University Fine Arts Department’s Painting Department, the artist lives and works in Istanbul. He participated in the Mamut Art Project in 2015, showing oil paintings at the fair. Marcus Graf sees Serbest as one of the most promising names of 2015. 

Sarkis

Sarkis is one of the most important conceptual artists of our time. He was trained at the Istanbul Fine Arts Academy (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University). The artist’s first exhibition was at Istanbul Art Gallery in 1960. He moved to Paris in 1964 and continues to live and work there. The artist’s installation Respiro was at the Turkish Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Defne Ayas. Sarkis is one of the artists that Cem Erciyes emphasized for this list. 

Selin Balcı

Selin Balcı graduated from the Fine Arts Department at the West Virginia University and finished her MFA at Maryland University in 2012. She works in the State of Maryland in the United States since 2008, teaching art history and design in two different universities. Balcı combines art and science in her works, using microorganisms, which we are used to seeing in Petri dishes in sterile lab environments, on canvas. The artist most recently participated in a group exhibition “40 Meters // 4 Walls // 8 Cubes.” Nazlı Pektaş, who voted for Selin Balcı, says of her work, “Balcı refers to the founding principles of social contradictions and our existence while drawing attention to social tensions.”

Sinem Dişli 

Sinem Dişli was born in Urfa in 1982. She completed her undergraduate studies at Dokuz Eylül University in 2004 and finished her graduate studies at Marmara University Photography Department in 2007. In the meanwhile, she worked as an assistant curator at the Photography Department of Istanbul Modern Art Museum. The artist lives and works in both Istanbul and New York. She most recently opened a solo exhibition at The Empire Project, “Currents.” The exhibition included photography, installation, and videos, starting with the city where she was born, Urfa, and focusing on Mesopotamia. Sinem Dişli is one of the names on Refik Akyüz and Saliha Yavuz’s lists. 

Tayfun Gülnar 

The artist’s compositions depict subjects from his mind, his private life and history of humankind are brought together intuitively with objects and spaces, designing spaces that go back and forth between reality and the dream world. These spaces are an organic result of his decision to use abstraction. He often makes use of the tensions between the opposite pairs of hot-cold, safe-unsafe, rage-peace, revealing his successful technique in painting that is based on the strong foundations of the tradition of painting. Gülnar’s solo exhibition “Praise for Images” at the Derinlikler Art Center. He is one of the names that Mehmet Kahraman puts forth. 

Tuba Yalçınkaya 

Tuba Yalçınkaya’s first solo exhibition, “To All Beautiful Dreams,” was a journey in the artist’s subconscious within our patriarchical system, showing that while the woman is glorified for her fertility, she is simultaneously denounced for her sexual desires, ostracized, and abused. The artist works with drawings and thinks specifically about space. She has most recently opened a solo exhibition at Öktem&Aykut, “Memory of the Mountain.” Refik Akyüz considers Tuba Yalçınkaya one of the most successful artists of 2015. 

Yonca Karakaş

Born in 1982, Yonca Karakaş studied photography and video art at Yıldız Technical University’s Art and Design Faculty in İstanbul. The artist deals with everything that we see as reality being relational, both temporally and spatially, to each other. In all her series, she aims to make viewers feel that generally, what appears to be good is not always safe; the scenes she constructs using pastel tones produce ominous situations, where a beautiful, dreamy moment becomes nightmarish. The artist’s exhibition “Weltschmerz” was at Pg Art Gallery this year. She is on this list with Ebru Nalan Sülün’s vote. 

Jury members:

Radikal editorial director Cem Erciyes

Academic, art historian, art critic (AICA/Board Member) Ebru Nalan Sülün

Artist, theoretician and academic Emre Zeytinoğlu

Associate professor, art historian, writer, curator Marcus Graf

REM Art Space founder, curator Mehmet Kahraman

Academic, art historian, art critic Nazlı Pektaş

Culture manager Refik Akyüz

Independent art manager Saliha Yavuz

Editor, art writer, art historian Seda Yörüker