May 2025 Exhibitions

As spring infuses the city with fresh energy, galleries and museums open their doors to a wide array of ambitious exhibitions this May—ideal for those seeking to step away from the chaos of daily life and nourish their spirit. The editors of ArtDog Istanbul have compiled a selection of this month’s standout shows.

ArtDog Istanbul’s May Highlights include:
Temür Köran’s Intuitions and Traces at EVİN Art Gallery,
Gülsün Karamustafa’s A State of Occupation—a show that extends beyond BüroSarıgedik’s physical boundaries into Merdiven Art Space, focusing on the city’s memory,
Nuri Kuzucan’s All the Parts of a Painting at Galerist, which invites viewers into a visual and intellectual dialogue with space,
and Serhat Kiraz’s Transform at Maçka Art Gallery.

Temür Köran’s Intuitions and Traces at EVİN
Temür Köran’s twenty-third solo exhibition, titled Intuitions and Traces, is now open at EVİN Art Gallery. In this show, the artist explores the relationship between truth and memory through a multi-layered and expressionist body of work, channelling both individual and societal sensitivities into his artistic language. Emphasizing that seeing is an intellectual act, Köran engages with the tension between the visible and the remembered, the tangible and the abstract, the individual and the collective memory—all shaped through past practices and influences from art history. Köran, whose works are included in major collections such as Istanbul Modern and the Museum of Painting and Sculpture, follows an intuitive creative process in his practice.

Visit Details:
• Dates: April 26 – June 21
• Venue: EVİN, Istanbul
• Entry Information: EVİN

Gülsün Karamustafa’s A Sort of Invasion : A Focus on Istanbul’s Memory
Gülsün Karamustafa’s exhibition A State of Occupation, extending beyond the confines of BüroSarıgedik to Merdiven Art Space, reveals the fragility of urban identities and characters shaped over generations in the face of shifting political dynamics. Bringing together her recent collages, assemblages, found objects, installations, and video works, the exhibition investigates how the condition of existing within the city evolves on both a personal and collective level. Drawing inspiration from Istanbul’s history, Karamustafa sheds light on the city’s changing dynamics and spirit, shaped by transformations, displacements, and migration. The show highlights the intricate relationship between collective memory and urban space, making it visible through artistic intervention.

Visit Details:
• Dates: May 5 – July 1
• Venue: BüroSarıgedik – Merdiven Art Space
• Entry Information: BüroSarıgedik

Nuri Kuzucan’s All Fragments of a Painting: A Conceptual Journey
Galerist hosts Nuri Kuzucan’s second solo exhibition, All the Parts of a Painting. Without offering any guiding narrative, Kuzucan invites viewers into a visual and conceptual dialogue with space, foregrounding the historical building from the 19th century in which the gallery is housed. His paintings transcend the idea of the wall as a mere surface, engaging with one another and their surroundings in a flowing rhythm that spans the entire exhibition. The works liberate the viewer from a fixed perspective, while dualities such as emptiness and fullness, light and shadow, negative and positive space come together as complementary components, forming a visual balance that transcends the limits of a single narrative and continuously shifts.

Visit Details:
• Dates: May 7 – June 21
• Venue: Galerist
• Entry Information: Galerist

Fulya Çetin and İlhan Sayın at Yapı Kredi Gallery
The second edition of Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre’s exhibition series Together brings together works by Fulya Çetin and İlhan Sayın, both of whom have been producing art since the 1990s. With a display concept tailored to the architecture of Yapı Kredi Gallery, the show opens up space for both the artists’ individual and joint narratives. In her series Daydreams, Çetin constructs an ecofeminist narrative centered on nature and womanhood, while Sayın’s Deer Night contemplates resistance in nature, time, and architecture. Both artists, through their refined and distinct styles, reveal the human dominance over nature and the resulting environmental and social injustices. By repositioning plants and animals as subjects, the exhibition invites viewers to imagine a non-anthropocentric universe.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 9 – January 4
• Venue: Yapı Kredi Gallery
• Entry Information: Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts

Kezban’s Cabinet of Curiosities at MeshRu
In her exhibition Kezban’s Cabinet of Curiosities at MeshRu, artist Kezban Arca Batıbeki creates a personal and artistic universe inspired by her fascination with collecting objects. The show brings together items that revolve around themes of womanhood and home/domesticity. Each piece reflects the artist’s aesthetic sensibility and the interests she has cultivated over the years. Kezban’s Cabinet of Curiosities invites visitors on an intimate journey into the artist’s inner world.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 17 – September 30
• Venue: MeshRu, Beyoğlu
• Entry Information: MeshRu

Waseem Ahmad Siddiqui – …Now! (Can I stay at your place?) at Depo
Depo presents the solo exhibition …Now! (Can I stay at your place?) by Lahore-born artist Waseem Ahmad Siddiqui. Focusing on displacement, spatial storytelling, and autobiographical methodologies related to borders, Siddiqui explores the nuances of time, dislocation, and the role of hope within their recurring discontinuities. Describing the exhibition as a form of essay, the artist poses critical questions: “Is the anxiety of displacement merely about space, or is it also a matter of scale? How does this anxiety affect the personal experiences of those without a home?”
Composed mainly of sound recordings, texts, and drawings, the exhibition begins with the artist’s own memory and engages with Walter Benjamin’s concept of Jetztzeit, or the “now-time.” Approaching displacement not only as a spatial but also a temporal rupture, Siddiqui examines “disillusioned hope” as a potential source of resistance in the face of uncertainty—through a variety of materials and scales.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 6 – July 12
• Venue: Depo
• Entry Information: Depo

“The Lives of Animals” at SALT Beyoğlu
Opening at SALT Beyoğlu, The Lives of Animals explores the historical relationship between humans and animals, from cohabitation to domination. Taking its name from the novel by J. M. Coetzee, the exhibition places at its center the works of Lin May Saeed, which satirize violence against animals. The selection features works by artists from Turkey and beyond, enriched by archival research on Istanbul’s street dogs and interdisciplinary sound pieces.
The second floor focuses on themes such as domination, ecological responsibility, and cultural hybridity, while the third floor continues with textile- and craft-based works dealing with notions of care, mourning, and resistance. The Lives of Animals offers new perspectives on interspecies relationships and raises questions about the possibilities of shared existence. The exhibition was realized with support from various international institutions.

“Inside the Belly of the Fish”—A Poetic Encounter with Art at Barın Han
Inside the Belly of the Fish, a collaborative exhibition by Eda Soylu and Hatice Utkan at Barın Han, brings together poetry and visual art. Uniting disciplines such as painting, sculpture, and poetry, the artists weave these mediums together in search of a new approach to art. Drawing from the history of thought and philosophy, they invite viewers on a journey through concepts such as mind, body, soul, being, and unity.
Spanning three floors of the space, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, poems, and installations. The artists explore the convergence of writing and artwork in contemporary art, questioning the role of poetry within this context. Their inquiry considers writing as a tradition capable of surpassing the visible—an act through which poetic flow becomes a path to new expressions.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 24 – June 14
• Venue: Barın Han
• Entry Information: Barın Han

Saliha Yılmaz’s New Exhibition Sea of Fog at MERKUR
Artist Saliha Yılmaz presents her latest solo exhibition Sea of Fog at MERKUR, on view until the end of the month. Featuring works produced with ceramics, canvas, and paper alongside AI-generated visuals, the exhibition combines traditional and digital techniques. Through the concept of fog, Yılmaz constructs an intellectual space in which the boundaries between human, nature, and identity blur.
Accompanied by a curatorial text by Nazlı Pektaş, this multi-layered body of work invites viewers to question fixed patterns of perception. The exhibition opens up a discussion on new forms of existence in a world where uncertainty is transformed into productivity.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 26 – May 24
• Venue: MERKUR
• Entry Information: MERKUR

“The Synchronized Body” Group Exhibition at Martch Art Project
Martch Art Project presents The Synchronized Body, a group exhibition curated by T. Melis Golar. Rooted in the idea that belonging is not only a mental experience but also a physical one, the show explores how the body is shaped by social norms, memory, and environment.
Rather than treating the body as a passive vessel, the exhibition positions it as a subject that interacts with and reproduces cultural codes. Through the lens of relationality, it proposes a redefinition of belonging.
Works by Dilşad Aladağ, Zeynep Beler, Serra Bilgincan, Mustafa Boğa, Dilan Bozer, Yekateryna Grygorenko, Fırat İtmeç, and Alix Marie come together within this conceptual framework. The exhibition reimagines belonging not as a fixed identity but as a state of transition, interaction, and exposure. Using water as a metaphor, the body is linked to temporal, evolutionary, and cosmic origins, inviting the viewer on a journey through both internal and external layers of belonging.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 22 – May 24
• Venue: Martch Art Project
• Entry Information: Martch Art Project

Hakan Çapkan’s In the Shadow of Nature at Kun Art Space
Throughout May, Kun Art Space—a contemporary art gallery in Turkey’s Çukurova region—hosts illustrator Hakan Çapkan’s solo exhibition In the Shadow of Nature. In this exhibition, the artist questions the ecological relationship not only between humans and nature, but also between humans and their own existence. Exploring new ways of engaging with nature within urban life, the show centers around the idea that “Nature is no longer just trees, skies, and birdsong.”
Expanding the notion of nature, the exhibition includes human nature within this broader definition. Accordingly, in the works on view, nature takes shape not only through the environment but also through the city, the body, memory, and imagination. Rather than merely observing nature, the exhibition reveals how it is continuously reproduced on both personal and urban levels.

Visit Details
• Date: May 24
• Venue: Kun Art Space, Adana
• Entry Information: Kun Art Space

“XY” – Two Unknowns, Two Coordinates at Caresse Art
Caresse Art, a major force in Bodrum’s art tourism scene, opens the season with XY, an exhibition by Erin İlkcan Arslan and Tao Ulusoy. Curated by Nilüfer Narayani, the show explores contemporary uncertainties through themes such as identity, belonging, and generational transitions.
XY unfolds as a question, a challenge, an identity crisis, and an intergenerational echo all at once. Through this exhibition, the artists invite viewers to confront inner voids on both societal and personal levels. Each piece radiates like a lantern held up to the unknown.
The artists describe the process as: “This is a question, a challenge, an identity crisis, an echo across generations—and for us, a form of expression. Each piece in the show is a lantern cast toward the unknown.”

Visit Details
• Date: May 19
• Venue: Caresse Art, Bodrum
• Entry Information: Caresse Art, Bodrum

“A Journey Through Italy” at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
The exhibition A Journey Through Italy by Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri, a pivotal figure in contemporary Italian photography, is now on view in Istanbul. Organized in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Istanbul, the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MUFOCO), and the Luigi Ghirri Heirs Foundation, the exhibition marks the 40th anniversary of Ghirri’s 1984 project of the same name.
Curated by Matteo Balduzzi, the show brings together 86 original prints and invites Istanbul viewers—on the third stop of its European tour—to explore Italy’s visual memory through its striking natural landscapes.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 25 – May 28
• Venue: Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul
• Entry Information: Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts

Serhat Kiraz’s Exhibition at Maçka Art Gallery
Throughout May, Maçka Art Gallery presents Transform, an exhibition by artist Serhat Kiraz. The show features the digits 0 through 9—the basis of the decimal system—within an algorithmic structure rendered in the primary colors red, blue, and yellow.
Kiraz brings together approaches from visual analysis, color theory, coding, and semiotics to construct a layered and translucent visual language. Using a triadic coding system, the structure generates secondary and tertiary hues from the intersections of numbers. In the gray-toned areas where the artist deviates from the system, unique aesthetics emerge.
The works present a mathematical visual experience, evoking the harmonic chords found in music—offering viewers a visual symphony.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 29 – June 4
• Venue: Maçka Art Gallery
• Entry Information: Maçka Art Gallery

Banu Birecikligil’s Ode to a Dying Star at .artSümer
Banu Birecikligil’s exhibition Ode to a Dying Star at .artSümer offers a contemporary take on her visual narratives shaped around mythology and nature. Set on an ambiguous plane where time and space unravel, the exhibition follows a wandering figure through a cycle in which opposing concepts like life and death are intertwined.
Birecikligil’s paintings merge mythological allusions with instinctual references to nature; comfort and primitivity meet on the same surface. Animal figures symbolize ancient bonds with nature, while classical art references are reinterpreted with contemporary sensibilities.
Shaped by a sense of “in-betweenness,” her works guide the viewer along the edge of a reality that feels familiar yet displaced.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 26 – May 24
• Venue: .artSümer
• Entry Information: .artSümer

Eser Gündüz’s Solo Show Microswitch at Art On Istanbul
Eser Gündüz’s new exhibition Microswitch is on view at Art On Istanbul | Piyalepaşa. In this body of work, the artist creates a space for reflecting on play, memory, and identity through toys transposed into the adult world.
Inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, the exhibition explores personal discovery through works that oscillate between childhood and adulthood.
Constructed with canvas, paint, and toys, Gündüz’s visual playground brings inner and societal conflicts to the surface, inviting the viewer to confront their own past. Microswitch positions itself as a zone of resistance—where play and creativity intersect.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 29 – May 31
• Venue: Art On Istanbul
• Entry Information: Art On Istanbul

Hayri Şengün’s From the Other Time at Siyah Beyaz
The project space Özel Şeyler at Galeri Siyah Beyaz hosts Hayri Şengün’s solo exhibition From the Other Time. Bringing together engravings and sculptural objects, the exhibition examines the relationships formed between images produced over time.
By pairing earlier engravings with sculptures that have accumulated in his studio, Şengün creates a sense of continuity that spans across different time periods. Enriched by literary references such as Borges and Pessoa, the exhibition makes visible the temporal encounters of selves and images.
From the Other Time presents a multilayered narrative that questions the connections between past and present in artistic production.

Visit Details
• Dates: April 19 – May 17
• Venue: Siyah Beyaz, Ankara
• Entry Information: Siyah Beyaz

Ahu Akgün’s Pretending to Be Alive at Galeri Nev
Ahu Akgün’s exhibition Pretending to Be Alive at Galeri Nev questions the human tendency to drift away from truth and become lost in self-created realities.
The show reflects the artist’s effort to confront authenticity through personal experiences and emotions. Her works strikingly depict the fractured relationship between humans, nature, and the self.
Imitation of Life invites viewers to a space of both personal and collective awareness—accompanied by unresolved questions and quiet introspection.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 3 – June 4
• Venue: Galeri Nev
• Entry Information: Galeri Nev

Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s TunState at İMALAT-HANE
Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s solo exhibition TunState is on view at İMALAT-HANE. Inspired by nature’s strategies for self-preservation and regeneration, the show revolves around the themes of transformation, resilience, and stillness.
The works draw conceptual and visual links between handmade paper produced from the bark of the bursera fagaroides tree and the biological adaptation processes of the microscopic creature known as the tardigrade.
TunState is constructed not only as an artistic production but also as a living ecosystem of ideas. Continuing a dialogue with Çavuşoğlu’s earlier works, the exhibition opens a new space of inquiry through time, memory, and material.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 17 – September 27
• Venue: İMALAT-HANE, Bursa
• Entry Information: İMALAT-HANE

John Armleder’s HEPHİÇ at Dirimart Dolapdere
Dirimart Dolapdere hosts HEPHİÇ, the first solo exhibition in Turkey by renowned artist John Armleder. The show presents a comprehensive selection of his iconic Furniture Sculptures, dot paintings, pour-diptychs, and works on paper. Known for his approach that parallels the Fluxus movement, Armleder’s artistic language embraces chance, found objects, and a playful defiance of aesthetic norms.
HEPHİÇ reflects both the artist’s experimental and humorous sensibilities and his layered discourse on permanence and meaning. The exhibition also includes a site-specific installation created in Istanbul, offering viewers a multidimensional artistic experience that moves along the edges of time, form, and interpretation.

A New Space and a New Exhibition at Ambidexter
Ambidexter opens its new art space in Piyalepaşa with Fluid Continuity, a solo exhibition by David Doğan Levi. A multidisciplinary artist, Levi graduated from the Plastic Arts department at Paul Valéry University in Montpellier, France, in 2016.
Influenced by intersections of philosophy, psychology, and art during his university years, Levi became known for innovative techniques using self-made brushes and tools. Upon returning to Istanbul, he focused his painting practice on organic forms, incorporating photography into his creative process.
Levi’s works, situated between abstraction and figuration, challenge familiar categories and push the boundaries of artistic expression.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 3 – May 24
• Venue: Ambidexter, Piyalepaşa
• Entry Information: Ambidexter

“To Live is a Beautiful Thing, Brother”: A Nâzım Hikmet Exhibition in Bursa
As part of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality’s “Year of Nâzım Hikmet,” the exhibition To Live is a Beautiful Thing, Brother offers a comprehensive look at the life and artistic legacy of Nâzım Hikmet in two parts.
Curated by Emre Zeytinoğlu, the show is divided between a documentary presentation at Şefik Bursalı Art Gallery and an artistic display at Tayyare Cultural Center. It highlights not only Nâzım’s literary production but also his political stance and personal life.
Spanning poetry, theatre, cinema, and painting, the exhibition draws from archives of TÜSTAV, the Nâzım Hikmet Foundation, and the Piraye Collection, with a scenographic display style. Additional contributions from the Ahmet Merey Collection and independent artists enrich the exhibition, reflecting the timeless and multifaceted impact of Nâzım Hikmet’s legacy.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 9 – September 9
• Venues: Şefik Bursalı Art Gallery & Tayyare Cultural Center, Bursa
• Entry Information: Bursa Metropolitan Municipality

Rugül Serbest’s Solo Show Curated by Taner Ceylan at Pi Artworks
This May, Pi Artworks Istanbul presents Rugül Serbest’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery, If You Died Smiling Into My Eyes (An Illustrated Heart Anatomy), curated by Taner Ceylan.
The exhibition unveils an emotional map navigating themes of love, desire, and social constraint. In these works, the artist transforms both her body and inner world into artistic surfaces, immersing the viewer in a space of emotional and aesthetic tension.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 15 – June 28
• Venue: Pi Artworks Istanbul
• Entry Information: Pi Artworks

“Can Life Fit into a Single Frame?” at GeoGallery & Galeri Siyah Beyaz
The joint exhibition Can Life Fit into a Single Frame?, co-organized by GeoGallery and Galeri Siyah Beyaz, showcases the collaborative works of Berk Kır and Mahmut Anlar.
The exhibition centers on a silent dialogue built on memory and imagination between artists from different generations and disciplines: Semiramis Pekkan, Mahmut Anlar, and Berk Kır.
Anlar transforms images into spatial forms through material interventions, while Kır seeks to reveal the invisible through a familiar face.
More than just a portrait, the exhibition becomes a poetic inquiry into inner layers, silences, and the fragility of memory. Can a Life Fit into a Single Frame? invites viewers into the depths of intuitive witnessing and visual memory.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 9 – July 31
• Venue: GeoGallery Istanbul
• Entry Information: GeoGallery

Burcu Ünlü’s Light and Darkness at the Historic Hüsrev Kethüda Hammam
Light and Darkness, the second solo exhibition by Burcu Ünlü, will be on view at the Historic Hüsrev Kethüda Hammam. The exhibition presents a selection of paintings that explore the fundamental contrasts of life through visual language.
By reminding viewers that every light casts a shadow, the artist emphasizes that confronting darkness can ultimately amplify illumination.
Drawing from her background in fashion design, Ünlü integrates a refined sensitivity to color in her oil paintings, which depict scenes inspired by nature and travel. In her canvases, cities become spaces of reflection, while moments like sunrise and sunset symbolize inner transformation. Light and Darkness reflects both a continuation and a new threshold in the artist’s personal journey.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 7 – May 19
• Venue: Historic Hüsrev Kethüda Hammam
• Entry Information: Hüsrev Kethüda Hammam

Şive Neşe Baydar’s Elsewhere at Arkitekt Sanat
Şive Neşe Baydar’s solo exhibition Elsewhere is now on view at Arkitekt Sanat. Continuing her recent series focused on night and light, the show brings together her latest works.
Baydar transfers fleeting changes in light onto static surfaces, exploring the tension between transience and permanence through reflections and silhouettes.
The ephemeral images that appear on glass surfaces form the foundation of the artist’s long-term visual observations, anchoring her ongoing exploration of perception and transformation.

Visit Details
• Dates: May 10 – May 31
• Venue: Arkitekt Sanat
• Entry Information: Arkitekt Sanat