ARTIST / Artist
Elvan Alpay (1968)
Having spent her childhood and early youth in Stockholm, the artist continued her high school education at Galatasaray High School and graduated from Rochester East Ridge High School. She completed her university education at Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts in 1990 in Hüsamettin Koçan’s studio. She then completed her master’s degree at the same university in 1992. Alpay worked as a lecturer for a while, continued her research at the Salzburg Academy and held her first two exhibitions in the first half of the 90s at Galeri Zon in Ankara, curated by Döne Otyam. Since the mid-1990s, when she left her university position, the artist has dedicated herself to her art and been continuing to work in her studios in Istanbul and Ayvalık.
After her 1995 solo exhibition at Galerie Les Mondes de l’Art in Paris, Alpay held solo exhibitions in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2018 and 2019, all at Galeri Nev in Istanbul and Ankara. During this period, her works were exhibited in group exhibitions at the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture (1990), Arkeon Gallery-Istanbul (1992), Gallery BM-Istanbul (1993, 1996), Sotheby’s London (1996), AKM-Istanbul (1996), C.A.M Gallery-Istanbul (2002), Galeri Nev (2016, 2022), Pera Museum (2018), AKS—Antalya (2019), Artweeks Akaretler (2022), Contemporary Istanbul (2022), Atelier Marvy (İzmir, 2022), Gagiad (Gaziantep, 2023) and in cities such as Paris, Cologne, London, Trieste, Düsseldorf and New York.
In 2006, she was awarded the Grand Prize at the Beijing Biennale and her works are present in the collections of Fondation Cartier (Paris), Mitsubishi Foundation (Tokyo), OMM-Odunpazarı Modern Museum (Eskişehir) and in the corporate and private collections of QNB Finansbank, Alarko Holding, Arçelik, Koç, Akbank, TurkishBank, Yıldız Holding, Sabancı, Eczacıbaşı, Boyner, Mudo, PakMaya, ENKA and Peninsula Hotel in Istanbul and SwissHotel in İzmir.
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