Baran Aykutbay
Baran Aykutbay is an artist who lives and works in Diyarbakır. In his work, he uses various media such as painting, photography, drawing and video to explore the relationships between organic and artificial elements and cultural motifs. His practice revolves around the relationships between nature and man-made systems, forms of intervention and processes of transformation.
In his artistic practice, he works with objects, plants, stones and images gathered from nature; he reimagines these materials in studio and digital environments. He documents these processes through photography, sketching and digital intervention methods. He explores the boundaries between organic and artificial systems through the relationships between natural materials and everyday technological objects.
Between 2019 and 2023, he studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mardin Artuklu University, where he was awarded first prize for outstanding achievement. In 2024, he took part in the Yeşim Akçakaya Artist-in-Residence programme in Bolu.
The artist has participated in various exhibitions, including Remote Pattern (2021, MAÜGSF, Mardin), On Record (2021, 13 Metrekare Art Collective, Mardin), From Within and Continuously (2022, Depo, Istanbul), Dissensus (2023, Gri Alan, Balıkesir) and Meanings of Gathering (2025, Artmeant Project, online exhibition). In 2026, he participated in the digital exhibition titled Whose City Is This? organised by Grid Art Collective – Stamboul Art Collective.
Hatice Yıldız Züreyk
Hatice Yıldız Züreyk (b. 1991, Hatay) graduated from the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2013. Currently working as a teacher, the artist seeks to define both life and the self through the materials she engages with in her practice.
The interplay of words, imagination and color—multiplying and transforming into a narrative—forms a central aspect of her artistic journey. Her background in literature and painting has significantly shaped her recent interest in performance art, which she has been exploring over the past two years. In her performances, she often combines natural materials with language, creating layered modes of expression.
Alongside her performance practice, she continues her watercolor works under the title ‘The Narrative of Fabricated Flowers’. In this series, she aims to construct a unique composition by bringing together the independent colors of flowers and the boundless meanings of words.
Hüseyin Turan
Born in 1999 in Diyarbakır, Hüseyin Turan graduated from the Interior Architecture program at Akdeniz University. During his studies, he participated in archaeological excavations and restoration projects, which became a defining element in shaping his engagement with cultural heritage.
His practice revolves around cultural heritage, geology and prehistoric modes of production. He explores concepts of time, erosion, and transformation through stone, fossils, and natural formations. He reconsiders time from a non-anthropocentric perspective, proposing alternative temporalities and perceptual frameworks grounded in the rhythms and sensibilities of nature. Drawing from field observations andpersonal experiences, he works with photography and installation.
Mekin Avras
Mekin Avras (1991, Bitlis) studied Painting Education at the Faculty of Atatürk Education, Marmara University. He continues his practice, which is rooted in painting, across photography, installation, and video.
Avras focuses in his work on the relationships between psychology, consciousness, and metaphysics. His practice develops around internal tensions, alienation, ideological pressures, and ethical conflicts. This trajectory expands through the relationships human beings establish with other entities. Consciousness, perception, and memory form the core layers of his work. In a practice that evolves through different series, each work constructs a structure specific to the subject it addresses.
In the series ‘Metro Günlükleri’, he explores the psychological layers of individuals encountered in public space through portraiture. In ‘Duvar, Ardı, Anılar’, he focuses on the monumental traces of trauma and memory. The work ‘Hipokrat Yemini’ is constructed around ethical values and human dignity. The series ‘Mor Alan’ is based on field research conducted in an industrial space, examining layers of memory through accumulated time on surfaces and material transformation.
Avras took part in the 2022 Mamut Art Project. In 2024, he was awarded first prize by the jury at the Galeri Beylikdüzü National Visual Arts Competition. In 2025, he participated in the Akdeniz Bienali Mare Nostrum. In 2026, he was selected for the Akbank Contemporary Young Artists Exhibition.
Özlem Köse
Özlem Köse (1995, Gaziantep), who graduated from Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty Painting Department in 2017, completed her master's degree at the Fine Arts Institute of the same university in 2020 with her thesis titled Repulsive Images in Contemporary Art: Abject Art. Köse's works are shaped around questions such as how politics determines everyday life and what are the manifestations of the individual's search for meaning in daily life. She is also interested in how to construct the language of the victim and the other in art. She seeks the possibilities of a production that puts the narratives of waste and ordinary objects