Sinem Dişli was born in Urfa, Turkey. She earned her BFA degree in Sculpture at Dokuz Eylul University and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography at Marmara University, focusing her dissertation thesis on "The Use of Photography in the Art Movements of the 20th Century and Photography’s Relationship with the Concept of Avant-Garde." Between 2005 and 2008, she worked in the photography department of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. In 2008, she was awarded a scholarship to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York and participated in visual arts programs at ICP and The Cooper Union.
Driven by environmental concerns in Mesopotamia and around the Euphrates River, her practice confronts the colonial framework of dominant archaeological and geological approaches by interacting with the landscape as an extended body with which we are interdependent. From highlighting biodiversity to connecting geologic time with the environmental crisis, her work reflects on nature's materiality and its relationship with various cultural practices. Her artistic practice encompasses photography, video and sculpture as well as experimental printing processes.
Dişli was invited to residencies at Triangle Arts Association and ISCP, New York (2015), Marble House Project, Vermont (2020), LMCC New York (2022), and Residency On The Road (2023). Alongside seven solo exhibitions: Deep Time: Faces of Matter (2022), Hollows and Mounds (2019), RUTUBET (2017), Cereyan (Currents) (2015), Anamnesis (2013), İntiba (First Impression) (2011), Özdirenç (Resistance) (2007), Anxiety (2004), her work has been exhibited internationally in numerous shows such as A Pillar of Smoke (The Rencontres d’Arles, 2018), You Are What You Eat (Krakow Photo Month, 2019), Sandstorm–And Then There was Dust (Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin, 2021), Crystal Clear (Curator: Elena Sorokina, Pera Museum, 2020), 2022: April, Future and Contemporaneity, 14 Bienal de La Habana/March, Sound is the Silence of the Image, Foto Wien, Vienna. She was recognized as one of the "7 Promising Photographers to Watch at At Arles Festival" by The New York Times in 2018 and was nominated for The Prix Pictet Award in 2019.