In our 563rd Art Gathering, we are visiting opera singer Derya Kayaalp.

Derya Kayaalp is an opera singer and vocal coach living in Istanbul. She began her musical education at the Vocal Department of Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory High School, and then completed her university education in opera at SUNY Purchase College in the United States.

Throughout her education, she had the opportunity to work with teachers who have served at leading art institutions around the world, such as the Metropolitan Opera, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, and Eastman School of Music. In 2016, she made her first opera album recording, performing the role of Ann Putnam in Robert Ward's Crucible with the Purchase Symphony Orchestra.

For over a decade, she has been providing training in vocal technique, repertoire, stage preparation, conservatory preparation, and singing diction in Italian, German, French, English, and Turkish. She teaches her students to sing in a healthy, free, and musical way, using their bodies and voices more consciously.

Derya's Studio provides one-on-one training for opera students, conservatory candidates, and individuals who want to improve their singing technique.

Wednesday, July 8th

12:00-13:00

Address: Zeytinoğlu Caddesi Akat Mahallesi Building No:8 Floor:2 Apartment No:6 Beşiktaş

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7gE7AsGY4j4aRFBa9?g_st=ic

At our 562st Art Gathering, we are visiting the exhibition of artist Merve Dündar at Quick Art Space.

Artist Merve Dündar passed away on April 9, 2026, at the age of 58. However, her deep connection with art continues to live on even after her death. The exhibition, "Morning Light Falling on the Notebook," whose preparations began in early 2025 while Dündar was still alive, was realized exactly as planned, in accordance with the wishes of the artist, her family, and her close circle.

Dündar's work stems from the question of how language, social norms, and sensory experiences shape emotional perception and the understanding of self and reality. In addition to drawings, sculptures, installations, and text-based works, her artistic practice also includes productions open to viewer participation. Using fragile and humble materials such as recycled paper, sewing, and chalk dust, the artist primarily uses paper in its various forms. In her continuous relationship with language, she treats words as both material and subject. Repetition, rhythm, layering, deconstruction, and reconstruction are the recurring formal strategies in her work.

The exhibition references the artist's notebooks, which she begins filling in the early morning hours, and her walks—her daily routines. It features a comprehensive selection of drawings, collages, assemblages, paintings, and installations produced over the past four years. We will hear about the exhibition from its curator, Nergis Abıyeva.

Wednesday, July 1st

12:00-13:00

Address: Quick Art Space, İçerenköy, Umut Sokak No:10-12, Ataşehir

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9692xBVshTns77YJ8?g_st=ic

At our 561st Art Gathering, we are visiting the Olympos Exhibitions “Still Life.”

This project is a multi-layered art initiative inspired by Taner Ceylan’s olive grove in Olympos, bringing together exhibition, publication, and mentoring processes. Organized by Taner Ceylan Studio, it hosts the works of emerging artists in various disciplines such as painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation in historical venues of Istanbul. The project is also accompanied by publications featuring texts written by renowned Turkish artists. In Ceylan’s words, “what comes with art returns to art”; this entire process comes to life with the independent support of collectors and individuals and institutions from the art community.

The fourth edition of the series, “Still Life,” will be on display at Eski Posta Han in Karaköy from June 12-26. Previously launched in 2019 with "Portrait" at the Sadık Paşa Mansion, the series moved to Zülfaris Karaköy for "Landscape" in 2021 and to the Historical Flour Mill Building for "Interior" in 2024. Focusing on five fundamental themes of art history, this project now concentrates on still life. The exhibition features works by Ayşe Uluçay, Chorus of Body, Defne Hadiş, Ece Erbil, Hilmican Özdemir, Manolya Çelikler, Onur Kaymak, Özge Akdeniz, and Sinan Orakçı. Ceylan, through a mentoring process spanning approximately two years, rethinks the concept of still life with the artists through their own practices, research, and material choices.

Still life, in its classical sense, is a deeply rooted genre based on the representation of objects, interwoven with themes such as time, transience, ownership, and death. This exhibition interprets that tradition through the eyes of contemporary artists. The book focuses on the diverse uses of object, image, and material in contemporary art. Works encompassing painting, sculpture, installation, and various other media establish a strong dialogue with the historical postal, printing, and commercial identity of Eski Posta Han, a significant example of late 19th-century Istanbul architecture.

As in previous editions, “Still Life” is accompanied by a comprehensive book. Edited by Süreyyya Evren, designed by Vahit Tuna, and featuring reproduction photographs by Engin Gerçek, the publication includes contributions from Ahmet Rüstem Ekici & Hakan Sorar, Alp İşmen, Ani Çelik Arevyan, Burçak Bingöl, Canan Tolon, Doğu Özgün, Ezgi Kılınçaslan, Hakan Akçura, Ilgın Seymen, İrem Tok, Kaan Fıçıcı, Lara Ögel, Mehmet Ali Boran, Nazan Azeri, Pelda Aytaş, and Sena, who explore the concept of still life through works that have left a mark on their lives. The book also brings together thoughts on still life paintings by artists from different periods such as Arcimboldo, Bacon, Van Gogh, Magritte, Burri, Claudia Hart, Odilon Redon, Nur Koçak, Ori Gersht, and Feyhaman Duran, while also including special texts written by Taner Ceylan for the artists in the exhibition.

Wednesday, June 24

12:00-13:00

Address: Eski Posta Han, Arap Cami Mahallesi, Bereketzade Medresesi Sokak No:21, Beyoğlu

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7Np9dSFup4SzQ9sb9?g_st=ic

At our 560th Art Gathering, we are visiting the studio of artist Fulya Çetin.

Fulya Çetin (1970, Istanbul), after graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, had the opportunity to work with nearly 160 artists, initiatives, and civil society organizations between 2007-2009 in Hafriyat Karaköy, a space that describes itself as a "Various Arts World."

Fulya Çetin chooses and focuses on any location, creating images that best convey the emotion she wants to evoke and draw the viewer into her world. She sometimes uses oil paint on canvas, sometimes ink on gauze, sometimes paper, and sometimes photography and video techniques through a viewfinder. In each exhibition, she brings together different mediums, inviting the viewer into her world with words, sounds, and images. In this world, objects are seen through the eyes of a woman demanding conscience and justice; images that evoke the times we witness in our society, and various disguised forms of domination are present.

Among her images are playgrounds, tranquil beaches, and abandoned objects, which exist in our world through their functions; while the sadness evoked in our minds by an empty coat rack or abandoned shoes focuses on the past and memory. The nature of her inner voice, oscillating between meaning and the transcendental, transforms into dualities between abstraction and reality, hope and despair, joy and fear in her paintings. This state is also reflected in her technique, creating a space for a dialogue that oscillates between dominating the surface and surrendering to it.

Some of the artist's works and exhibitions include: daily drawings for the "Excavation Workers" column of Birgün Newspaper and participation in "Istanbul Tax Collectors." Between 2013 and 2015, she prepared drawings and visuals for Kaos GL magazine. Since 2006, she has participated in numerous Hafriyat exhibitions, starting with "Local Paradise" at the Diyarbakır Art Center. Some of the notable group exhibitions she has participated in include "Where the Fire Fell," "Destruction," "We Are Here, Ahparig," "Terror of Reality," all held at the Tobacco Warehouse, and "Spring Cleaning," held at Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları. Abroad, she has participated in "All Your Women Things" at the Manchester Paper Gallery and "Rose Garden" at the Frankfurt Opelvillen Gallery. In 2017, she presented the exhibition "After the Night" with Çağla Köseoğulları at FAİL publications. Some of Fulya Çetin's solo exhibitions include "Plastic Doll" (2009), realized within the scope of Vahit Tuna's Masa project; "River Under River" (2013) at artSümer; "Mixing into the Air" (2015) at Tütün Deposu; and "Darker Than Night" (2016) at Sanatorium. In 2019, she also held a solo exhibition titled "The Day the Mountains and Stones Wept" as part of the Atonal 9 solo exhibition at Emin Barın Han.

Furthermore, her uniquely designed notebooks were exhibited at the British Museum's "Poetry to Politics - Artists Making Books" exhibition; and recently, she participated in a solo exhibition titled "Growing with the Wind" at Galeri Nev and a group exhibition at Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat. Through all these works, Fulya Çetin has presented her pieces to audiences in numerous exhibitions both in Turkey and abroad.

Wednesday, June 17

12:00-13:00

Address: Kozyatağı Mahallesi, Şanlıer Sokak, Demir Apartmanı Apartment: 1, Kadıköy

https://maps.app.goo.gl/8VKKWY1nXQNqkAYa7?g_st=ic

At our 559th Art Gathering, we are visiting the studio of artist Arzu Ertekin.

Arzu Ertekin, after studying economics and working in the banking sector for 30 years, turned to contemporary metal art. Her artistic production is not the result of a linear plan, but is based on an intuitive accumulation that has developed over time. Her relationship, which began with lines, gradually transformed into volume, and then into the resistance of metal. Her search for form, which began with clay, evolved into passion when it met the hardness of metal. In her sculptures, she seeks an answer to the question "Is the world real or imaginary?"; she works with mythological narratives, imagination, and dreamlike figures inspired by nature. She is known for her metal sculptures such as Feylakus, Miko, Cicevo, and Kudra, which have original legends that she created herself. Believing that the greatest economic reality is happiness, the artist carries out her productions within the Atölye20 studio.

Among the notable exhibitions she participated in are the Room by Room Exhibition (with the Atölye20 team) held at Metrohan in Beyoğlu, Istanbul in 2026, and the Barı-n/m-ak Group Exhibition on animal rights at the Gazhane Museum.

Wednesday, June 10

12:00-13:00

Address: Deniz Coşkun, Atölye20

Sultan Selim Mahallesi, Akyal Sitesi Çıkmaz Sokak 3/4 Kağıthane

https://maps.google.com/?q=41.088810,29.005003

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