At our 558th Art Gathering, we are visiting the “Barı-n/m-ak” exhibition at the Historical Museum Gazhane.

The social responsibility project “Barı-n/m-ak,” which I curated, brings together contemporary art practices and animal rights advocacy. The exhibition title, created through a typographic intervention, simultaneously questions the concepts of “shelter” and “to shelter,” inviting the viewer to reflect on co-existence in the city, the right to shelter, and interspecies solidarity. The hyphens and spacing in the word disrupt its structure, raising questions such as: What is the right to shelter? Who can find shelter in the city, and who cannot? Is a shelter for animals a refuge or a place of isolation? How are living spaces created or closed by human hands shaped? Missing or extra letters allude to the animals' homes waiting to be completed and humanity's responsibility to complete this deficiency.

As part of the project, some artists have created new works specifically for the exhibition theme, while others are participating with their existing works. At the end of the exhibition, the artists will, on their own initiative, present their works to collectors, and the support obtained from these presentations will be used to directly procure materials from the urgent needs lists of Beşiktaş Municipality Shelters and Angels Farm.

The participating artists include Özge Akdeniz, Ozan Atalan, Vahap Avşar, Melis Baçaru, Beyza Boynudelik, Cins, Yağmur Çalış, Bekir Dindar, Alea Pınar Du Pre, Çağdaş Erçelik, Arzu Ertekin, Güler Güçlü, Osman Gültepe, Seydi Murat Koç, Mehmet Sinan Kuran, Burak Kutlay, Gönül Nuhoğlu, Tuğba Öztopçu, Lebriz Rona, Ezgi Sandıkçı, Gonca Sezer, Nilüfer Şatana, Erkut Terliksiz, Cansu Yıldıran, Çiğdem Yıldırım, İpek Yücesoy, and Baysan Yüksel.

Tomorrow, at our meeting, we will be joined by the exhibition's curator and artists Çiğdem Yıldırım, Beyza Boynudelik, Tuğba Öztopçu, Gönül Nuhoğlu, and our member and the creator of the exhibition, Melis Baçaru. We look forward to seeing you and your furry friends.

Wednesday, June 3rd

12:00-13:00

Address: İBB Museum Gazhane, Hasanpaşa, Kurbağalıdere Caddesi No:125, Kadıköy

https://maps.app.goo.gl/d52En1AEvwttfhfr6?g_st=ic

At our 557th Art Gathering, we are visiting Casa Botter to get to know artist İhsan Cemal Karaburçak better.

Born in Istanbul in 1898, Karaburçak is one of the rare Turkish painters who built his own artistic language without formal art training. Following a bureaucratic career that spanned from inspector at the PTT (Turkish Post and Telegraph Office) to Director of Telegraph Affairs, he joined the Anatolian News Agency in 1933. Although he first picked up a brush in 1930 at the Ecole Universelle in Paris, he was forced to leave the school shortly afterward. He held his first exhibition in Ankara in 1949, managed the Karaburçak Art Gallery in Ankara between 1956 and 1965, was a member of the Siyah Kalem Group, served as president of the Turkish Plastic Artists Association, and was a member of the Society of Art Critics and the Society of Contemporary Painters. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1962, won the second prize at the State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition in 1968, and passed away on June 10, 1970.

The artist, who prioritized two-dimensionality in his paintings, avoiding directional elements such as front-back and up-down, organic hierarchy, and narrative, developed a unique expression using ideograms. Initially focusing on Ankara landscapes, Karaburçak gradually produced portraits, still lifes, nature scenes, cityscapes, nightscapes, and abstract paintings. His practice of observation – journeys along telegraph lines, geographies he encountered through his journalistic work – transforms into overlapping layers of time in his works. These layers evolve into a coded visual language reminiscent of Morse code and a dense arrangement reminiscent of miniatures. The purple tones are almost his signature: creating an atmosphere suspended between night and day, reality and memory.

The exhibition at Casa Botter consists entirely of works from the Karaburçak Family collection. Focusing on the artist's unique color language and production practice, the selection invites the viewer to reconsider the relationship between personal and collective memory. This exhibition offers the opportunity to read Karaburçak's work, which has been referred to for years as one of the "masters waiting to be discovered," as a holistic visual memory.

Wednesday, May 20

12:00-13:00

Address: Casa Botter, Şahkulu, İstiklal Caddesi No:235, Beyoğlu

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ancoagY34bui2iGa9?g_st=ic

In our 556th Art Gathering, we are visiting artist Ömer Atakan.

Born in Istanbul in 1970, Ömer Atakan graduated from Saint-Joseph High School and then from the Faculty of Architecture at Mimar Sinan University. He completed his master's degree in Cinema, TV, Multimedia and Digital Technologies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he developed an interdisciplinary perspective.

Atakan also possesses an extensive collection focusing on film history, particularly the James Bond universe, which is known internationally. This collection, which includes rare books, film posters, and original pieces related to film history, forms an important part of the artist's relationship with popular culture and serves as an archival resource that inspires his work.

After working in the architecture sector for approximately 25 years, Atakan shifted his production to painting and visual storytelling; he developed his own unique artistic language by combining a cinematic perspective with graphic storytelling, illustration, and pop art-based painting. The artist mostly works on heavy-weight paper; He uses different techniques such as pencil, ink, marker, pastel, and acrylic together. Popular culture, personal memory, and collective history frequently intersect in his works.

Atakan's works are included in many private collections in Turkey and abroad; he also has two published novels that he wrote himself. Ömer Atakan has exhibited in important art venues in Turkey such as Artweeks, CI Bloom, and in Istanbul such as Goba Art & Design, Chi Art Gallery, and Frank Art Studio; and abroad at Hamburg West Station Gallery, London Art Fair, and Paris Art Capital.

Ömer Atakan continues his artistic production based in Istanbul and Paris.

Wednesday, May 13

12:00-13:00

In our 555th Art Meeting, we are visiting the 61st Venice Biennale, the world's oldest and most prestigious art event. This year's main exhibition is curated by Koyo Kouoh, whom we lost last year, and is titled "In Minor Keys," reflecting his vision.

The main venues of the Biennale are the Giardini and the Arsenale. The historic Giardini district hosts 30 permanent national pavilions, including Turkey's, while the Arsenale provides the space for both the main exhibition and numerous national participations. For the main exhibition of the 61st Venice Biennale, a total of 110 participating artists, mostly individual, have been invited. In addition, there are 100 national participations and 31 collateral events. Countries participating for the first time include the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of Nauru, Qatar, the Republic of Sierra Leone, the Federal Republic of Somalia, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Turkey Pavilion: Nilbar Güreş – I Kiss Your Eyes

This year, the Turkey Pavilion at the Venice Biennale will be located in the Sale d’Armi venue in the Arsenale district. Our country is represented by Nilbar Güreş, an artist internationally recognized for her interdisciplinary works. Curated by Başak Doğa Temür, the pavilion's exhibition is titled "I Kiss Your Eyes," a traditional Turkish form of address.

Wednesday, May 6th

12:00-13:00

#ArtForGoodness #VeniceBiennale #NilbarGüreş

At the 553rd Art Meeting, we are visiting the studio of artist Eda Soylu.

Eda Soylu was born in Istanbul in 1990. She graduated from Üsküdar American High School and spent a year of her high school education in Michigan through an exchange program. She attended Rhode Island School of Design (RISD'13), and in 2012, she was selected to participate in the school's European Honors Program, studying in Rome for six months. Her first solo exhibition, "Unforgettable, How Strange!", took place in Istanbul in 2014 with Berlin Art Projects. In 2015, she began street installations in Balat, simultaneously participating in group exhibitions in Berlin. In 2016, her second solo exhibition, "Rebuilding the Home," took place at Galeri Khas within Kadir Has University. Her third solo exhibition, "What Remains from My Grandmother's House," was held at Mixer in 2018. In 2019, she met the audience with her fourth solo exhibition, "Wounded Moments," at Barın Han as part of the Atonal 9 Solo exhibition. In 2021, she opened her fifth solo exhibition, "Play Blocks for Adults," at Ferda Art Platform. In 2025, she realized the exhibition "In the Belly of the Fish," which brought together poetry and art, at Barın Han together with Hatice Utkan. Focusing on her artistic expression through painting since 2020, Soylu continues her work and life in Istanbul.

Wednesday, April 22

12:00-13:00

Address: Moda Caddesi Hüseyinbey Sokak Kromer Apartmanı No:9/1 Kadıköy