Zeynep Beler (she/her) is an Istanbul-based painter whose practice overlaps indispensably with photography and vernacular imagery. She is most interested in images with “no [share] value” that clutter a phone’s camera roll, utilitarian or “bad” images lacking evident indexicality. In her current body of work, she seeks insight into a new kind of latent image, one that exists in the new liminal space of human experience, the role of the “user”. This new kind of latency is targeted towards suspending the ever more capricious attention of the user, inviting them into a threshold of anticipation and/or apprehension. As Beler works she stays alert to how her sensibility is being steered by algorithms, using devices in which the processes of seeing, photographing, and sharing are collapsed, and ultimately exploring ways of painting in collaboration with technology.
Beler received her BA in Graphic Design from Bilkent University in 2007 and her MA in Photographic Studies from Leiden University in 2010. Among workshops and residencies she has participated in are the two-year residency and grant Borusan ArtCenter Istanbul, Gastatelier des Landes Nordrhein Westfalen by invitation of the city of Düsseldorf, and Stitchting Het Wilde Weten in Rotterdam. Recent exhibitions include “We are in this together, we are not one and the same” (Lyon, 2019), “Artificial Bloom; Fluid Archives” (Istanbul, 2020), “Apparent Life” (solo) (Istanbul, 2022) and “CHIMERA” (Istanbul, 2023).
EDUCATION
BA Graphic Design, Bilkent University, 2007
MA Photographic Studies, Leiden University, 2010
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022: “render, render” 400×118, Unkapanı, Istanbul
2022: “Apparent Life” KRANK Art Gallery, Istanbul
2019: “Invisible Threads” Karantina Mekan, Izmir
2018: “Beachcomber” KRANK Art Gallery, Istanbul
2017: “Writing Remains” Zilberman Projects, Istanbul
As part of artist duo u_nme with panğyu
2021: “My Name is Mo” Lecture-performance, curated by Özge İnal, Heybeliada, Istanbul
2019: “Being Fig” Lecture-performance, Happening Now by artnivo.com, Akaretler Artweeks, Istanbul
2018: “??” Apartment Project, Berlin
2018: “ant sand” artist book and launch, Fail Books, Istanbul
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024: “New Lands” Arkas Art Center, İzmir
2024: “Litografi.” Kasa Galeri, Istanbul
2023: “Chimera” Martch Art Project, Istanbul
2022: “Soundcheck!” Heybeliada, Istanbul
2020: “Grandeur and Distance: A Selection from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection” 212 Photography Istanbul, Istanbul
2020: “Artificial Bloom; Fluid Archives” SANATORIUM, Istanbul
2019: “We are in this together, we are not one and the same” Espace Artaud, Lyon
2019: “Patches”, part of a series of public interventions mapped by sub, Istanbul
2018: “Sweet Little Lies” Plato Sanat, Istanbul
2018: “Atopos Project” Versus Art Project, Istanbul
2017: “Tree, Simulacrum, Sea, Moon” Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul
2017: “Whose (Art) History?” Uniq Gallery, Istanbul
2016: “Greetings from Now On: Territories of Commitments” BERLINARTPROJECTS, Berlin
2015 – 16: “Habitat”, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul
2015: “Desire”, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul
2014: “Mülksüzleş! Dispossess!” TUYAP Artist ’14, Istanbul
2014: “Photobook show F” Tokyo Institute of Photography / 72Gallery, Tokyo
2014: “The Feeling of Happiness” Homa Art Gallery, Tehran
2013: “Dodir Svetova/Worlds Touching” KCGrad, Belgrade
2012: “İyiniyetin Arsızlığı/Impudence of Good Intent” ArtSümer, Istanbul
2012: “Young Fresh Different 3” CDA-Projects,Istanbul
2012: “Reality Terror/Periferi Kolektif”Depo, Mars ve Asfalt Kadıköy, Istanbul
2012: “What I Love” Borusan Müzik Evi, Beyoğlu, Istanbul
2011: “Soft City”AlanIstanbul and ManzaraPerspectives, Istanbul
WORKSHOPS & RESIDENCIES
2023: Martch Studio AIR Program, Ayvalık, Turkey
2022: Stichting Het Wilde Weten AIR Program, Rotterdam, NL
2018: Articulating Research, SALT and m-est.org, Istanbul
2017: Gastatelier des Landes Nordrhein Westfalen Grant and residency by invitation of the state capital of Düsseldorf
2016: AiR Turkey – Scandinavia Connections, Tranås, Sweden
2012: MiddleTown: Picturing the Unspectacular, in collaboration with GAPO and ISSP as part of the EU Tandem Programme, Trabzon, Turkey and Kuldīga, Latvia
2010 – 12: Borusan ArtCenter/Istanbul artist residency and grant Grant and two-year residency at the Borusan ArtCenter building in Taksim, Istanbul
BIBLIOGRAPHY/PUBLICATIONS
2023: Argonotlar, “Hibrit bir üretim süreci: Chimera”, Esra Ece Kuleci, November 2023
2022: Art Unlimited, Pong [and the Transformation of the Image Regime in Art], Mahsum Çiçek, June 2022
2022: “Nostalgia in the Periphery” Adnan Mahmutovic & Esmir Prlija, Zeynep Beler, Efe Levent & Cincinius, Sharanya Deepak & Damla Özdemir, Ayşegül Dinççağ, May 2022
2020: Art Unlimited, Just then a flash in the city: Degenderized bodies and reconstructed archives, Seçil Epik, January 2020
2018: manifold.press, Kare Karıncalar ve Maskeli Çocuklar, Ali Taptık, August 9, 2018
2018: m-est.org, Pricked Surfaces, Merve Ünsal, April 13, 2018
2018: Sandalyede Oturan Zeynep Beler’in Simgesel İfadesi, Mahsum Çiçek, April 3, 2018
2017: Sanat Dunyamız, no. 161, p. 48-65, fragMENtaTION 32: Zeynep Beler: MAKE AN EXCEPTION OF ME, YKY, Istanbul (TR)
2017: Sanat Dünyamız no. 159, p. Yazı Tuhaflaşınca, Cansu Nur Şimşek, YKY, Istanbul (TR)
2016: Ekhprasis: Görünür ve Söylenir Arasında Geçitler, Barış Acar, Kült Neşriyat, İstanbul, ISBN 9786059894098
2013: Gençsanat, no. 213, Kentin Fotoğrafına Bakmak: Merve Ünsal, Teşvikiye Sanat Galerisi, İstanbul
2010: The Immaterial Photograph: The Obsolescence as Object in the Digital Era, Zeynep Beler, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-83839132-8
COLLECTIONS
Borusan Contemporary Collection
ÖZü Arts (Özyeğin University) Collection
Istanbul Modern Collection
Mustafa Taviloğlu Collection
Private collections (Turkey, NL, UK, Germany and the US)