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Meltem Işık is a Turkish artist and designer. Her interests span various aspects, including graphic design, jewelry design, sculpture, photography, visual art and visual communication design. Her experience of being a graphic designer and a visual artist cultivates each other.

Meltem Işık currently resides and works in Istanbul, Turkey. She has been teaching Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Department at Sabancı University since 2015.

Biography
Meltem Işık was born in Ankara, Turkey. She received her BFA in Graphic Design from Bilkent University, Ankara, in 1998. After graduating as the top student in her class, Meltem arrived in Istanbul and started her career working as an Art Director at a well-known advertising agency, McCann Erickson. Two years later, she relocated to New York City with her partner (later became her husband), where she started her associate’s degree on jewelry design on scholarship at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and received her AAS in 2001. She then worked as an apprentice with a jeweller for two years and began to sell her pieces at Julie Artisans’ Gallery in New York. She returned to the graphic design industry in 2003. Since then, she worked at Brooklyn Museum, until she seized the opportunity to further her career as a graphic designer at 92nd Street Y in 2006.

In 2008, Meltem moved back to Istanbul with her husband, where she started the graduate degree in Visual Arts at Sabancı University. Meanwhile, she started teaching in the department as an assistant, eventually becoming a visiting instructor in 2015. She has been working on her PhD in the Design, Technology and Society program at Özyeğin University since 2016.

Ideology
Meltem Işık has a great interest in exploring personal perspectives and interactions with external space. Her artworks encapsulate the essence of individual experiences within the broader context of the surrounding environment. Her exploration of the human body as both subject and object underscores themes of self-perception and bodily representation, inviting viewers to contemplate the complexities of perception, identity, and visibility. Notably, her dedication to delving into the philosophy of time and space is evident as she engages with themes that transcend temporal and spatial boundaries, exploring the interconnectedness of human experience across different dimensions.

Exchanges in a Confined Space, 2020. Archival pigment print, 78x100 cm
This is a work created by Meltem Işık during the pandemic in response to an initiative by the Istanbul Modern Photography Department and Advisory Board: “What does photography mean in challenging times like this?” The piece explores the complex emotions experienced during quarantine, when daily routines of different family members intertwine. Alongside daily life, Meltem found that both the child and the adults in the household experienced emotional fluctuation and strove to establish their own private space. In particular, she focuses on their son’s presence and interaction with the space, while documenting their shared experience in a confined space.

Leyla, 2018. Video installation, opera binoculars, brass frame and chain, plexiglass, mobile phone, 40x40 cm (height adjustable)
A group show titled “99 Squares” was organized to feature 99 figures who have made significant contributions to the Turkish Republic. These figures contribute to the country from different fields, including literature, visual arts, music, science, politics, etc. Each artist invited to this project was assigned with the task to represent their subject (on a 40x40 cm square) and honour the legacies of these influential figures.

Meltem Işık’s work in particular: in memory of the late soprano Leyla Gencer

Sound recording: “Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro” from the Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

From BBC Proms premiere, 1963, Royal Albert Hall

Soprano: Leyla Gencer as Countess Almaviva

Conductor: Silvio Varviso

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Suspicious affinities, 2015. Diasec, 100x140 cm
This series of work can be considered a continuation of Twice into the Stream photography. In this series of diasecs, Meltem Işık delves into the intricacies of human perception by assembling close-up photographs of various bodies and reconstructing a surreal image. She challenges conventional interpretations of the audience, exploring the blurred boundaries between subjective perception of reality and the objective assemblage of images. Meltem questions the ordinary way of looking and the reliance on perceptions in relation to reality. Through her work, she attempts to unravel pending issues surrounding photography and provoke contemplation on how we see and interpret the world through the lens of a naked eye and camera.

Twice into the stream, 2011. Pigment-based archival print on fine art paper, 210 x 140 cm
This series of prints explores the complexities of human perception, particularly in relation to the body. The series examines the dual nature of perspective: seeing and being seen simultaneously. While presented as a photographic installation, the process involves the performance of the subjects, each of whom holding a close-up photo. The imperfect details are magnified, covering their original body. The distorted self-image is the result of unconscious self-critiques. Through actions involved in assembling the series, from close-ups to the full presentation of both subjects and their close-up images, the artist aims to challenge societal norms and notions of elegance, decency, and perfection. The tile of her work, “Twice Into the Stream,” draws reference to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: One cannot step into the same river twice. Imperfections are just these temporary, fleeting moments in the stream; they are a part of the ever-changing reality. Yet, more importantly, we have them all.

Pending, 2011. Wooden structure, latex on fabric, electric blower, 100x100x300 cm
This is Meltem Işık’s first sculpture work, inspired by the first chapter of “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The book briefly tells the story of a pilot stranded in the desert who recounts a childhood drawing of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant, consistently misinterpreted by adults as a hat. This misunderstanding illustrates the pilot's frustration when adults are not able to appreciate his imaginative, symbolic artwork. Similarly, in challenging herself with a new form of art, Meltem evokes a sense of ambiguity and wonder, portraying a fragile yet massive figure that seems to linger in-between states of consciousness and existence. The sculpture, like the pilot’s drawing in the story, invites the audience to ponder its meaning and interpretation. The changing size of the blower, the rigidity of the wooden cube, create a paradox in size, shape, and states, blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination.

Solo exhibitions

 * 2015    “Suspicious affinities”, Galeri Nev Istanbul
 * 2012    “Twice into the stream”, Galeri Nev Istanbul
 * 2011     “MA Graduation Exhibition”, Sabancı University FassArt Gallery, Istanbul

Group exhibitions

 * 2020    “Photography in Days of Pandemic”, Istanbul Modern
 * 2018    “99 Squares” curated by Gökşen Buğra, Art On, Istanbul
 * 2018    “A Room of One's Own” curated by Yasemin Elçi, Leica Gallery, Istanbul
 * 2017    “What Story?” curated by Erdağ Aksel and Derya Yücel, Kasa Galeri, Istanbul
 * 2016    “Body – Human of the Anthropocene” curated by Dorota Stepniak, Wrocław, Poland
 * 2015    Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, represented by Galeri Nev Istanbul
 * 2015    Foto Istanbul International Photography Festival “Lives of Others”
 * 2012    “No.2” Nesrin Esirtgen Collection, Istanbul
 * 2012    Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, represented by Galeri Nev
 * 2011    “Borders – Orbits 09” juried exhibition, Siemens Sanat, Istanbul

Selected Articles, Reviews & Interviews

 * 2020 Interview, “Görünmeyen Ama Hissedileni Fotoğraflamak”, Artam Global Art & Design, no. 58, June 2020.
 * 2018 Yonca Keremoğlu, “In Conversation with the Artist Meltem Işık”, Yabangee, May 3, 2018.
 * 2018 Carole Coen, “Model Bodies, Explosion of Cannons”, Fisheye, no. 29, March-April 2018, p. 38-41.
 * 2016 “Body. Exhibition at Pokoyhof Passage in Wrocław”, anti-utopias.com, October 12,2016.
 * 2016 Cemreyaz Ilgaz, Interview, Artkolik, no 6 "Body", Summer 2016, p. 24-33.
 * 2016 Mary Alice Stephenson, Interview, GLAM4GOOD, February 2016.
 * 2016 Nina Azzarello, “Meltem Isik Constructs Hybrid Humans from Magnified Body Parts”, Designboom, January 18, 2016.
 * 2016 Nina Azzarello, “Meltem Işık Magnifies Anatomies to Probe Perceptions of the Human Body”, Designboom, January 13, 2016.
 * 2016 Caroline Kurze, “Bridging the Gap between How We See and How We Are Seen”, Gestalten, January 2016.
 * 2016 Melissa Faithful, “Nude Portraits of People Holding Pictures of Enlarged Body Parts Comment on Our Idea of Perception”, Art-Sheep, access date: January 3, 2016.
 * 2015 Özgen Yıldırım, “Şüpheli benzeşmeler: Meltem Işık Sergisi”, Bosphorus Art Magazine, no. 98, July 2015.
 * 2012 Erman Ata Uncu, Interview, Radikal, March 28, 2012.
 * 2012 Ayşegül Oğuz, Interview, Milliyet Sanat, March 2012.
 * 2011 Nazlı Gürlek, “Meltem Işık: Twice into the stream / Aynı nehirde bir daha”, Default Magazine, no. 12, May 2011, p. 70-77.
 * 2011 İhsan Yılmaz, Interview with Mürteza Fidan, Melih Görgün and Meltem Işık, “Açık Şehir”, TRT Türk, Istanbul, May 2011.

Publications

 * 2016 “Şüpheli benzeşmeler”, Kontrast Magazine, no. 50, January 2016, p.43-46.

Honors

 * 2016–Present Özyeğin University, PhD Program for Design, Technology and Society
 * Full academic scholarship
 * 2009–2011 Sabancı University, Visual Arts & Visual Communication Design Department
 * Teaching assistantship and full academic scholarship


 * 1998 Bilkent University, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture
 * Top ranking graduate of faculty
 * 1995–1998 Bilkent University, Department of Graphic Design
 * Full academic scholarship