Gülin Hayat Topdemir

Gülin Hayat Topdemir is a contemporary award-winning global artist known for her paintings, depicting tales of women through the dark corners of the mind. Born 1976 in Istanbul, Gülin completed art training from the Painting Department in the Faculty of Fine Art at Mimar Sinan University. During her formative years, Gülin also attended and worked at Salzburg's summer academy.

Gülin perfectly manages to capture the contrast between romanticism and the harsh realism of society. Achieving expertise in the realistic style through oil paintings, Gulin flawlessly delivers effectual and impeccable chiaroscuro, a technique of balancing the darkness and light, which dates back to the Renaissance.

The women in Gülin's paintings find themselves as a subject of an infinite universe, paired with uncanny facial expressions and situations while hinting at the fear of survival. Interestingly, the fear hides under a sublime mask of disoriented and animated figural composition.

The recurring style in Gulin’s work is an epitome of his deepest yearning to seek answers to the spaces that are not defined and continue to boggle the human psyche. A clear contrast is visible between the purity and sanctity of a woman and the evil and sinful taboos associated with them.

In 2007, Gülin won the Special Jury Prize at the Nuri İyem Painting Competition. She has done five group exhibitions from the year 1997 to 2012. From 2008, Gülin started to do her solo exhibitions, which continue till date, with some incredible titles including Black Box, Salon Rouge, Complexion, among others. Her work has also been exhibited in the Abdelliya Palace.

Gülin's works have also made their way into a lot of private collections in the Middle East, Europe and Turkey. Her work has also been acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK).

Gülin Hayat Topdemir lives and works in Istanbul.