I am a London-based Turkish-British artist with studios in London and Istanbul. My practice explores the relationship between reality and beyond reality, inviting audiences to dream, feel and think, while activating their own inner creativity.

My works attempt to harmoniously blend Eastern and Western, ancient and modern elements in my visual language. Cultural influences, the beauty of diverse places, time, and the joy found in meeting new people have always inspired me, adding vibrancy and richness to my art.

My practice is rooted in Istanbul, where I come from, and shaped by my life and work in London, where I am now based. I am interested in bringing the past and future into conversation through the experience of the here and now.

I discovered my creativity when I was around nine years old, while I was getting bored during a long summer holiday. My main epiphany came at the age of sixteen, marking the beginning of my artistic journey.

I graduated from the Painting Department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University with an undergraduate degree and a Master’s degree. I am currently pursuing my second Master’s degree in Painting at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, for the 2026–2027 academic year, based at the RCA’s Battersea campus.

Over two decades, I have exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and art fairs, beginning in Türkiye and expanding into Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom. I have also lectured at universities, participated in conferences, symposia and artist residencies, and published an artist book and exhibition monographs.

Since relocating to London in 2017, I have developed new associations and collaborations within the UK art scene while continuing to maintain my connections with Istanbul and the art scene in Türkiye. Being shortlisted for the 253rd Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2021 gave me an important vote of confidence in further developing my practice in the UK.

I am also interested in art as a form of shared knowledge. I established Art Club, a series of artist-led sessions designed to support participants in connecting with their inner creativity.

Collections

My works are held in major institutional collections including Türkiye Ziraat Bankası, Türkiye İş Bankası, Akbank Sanat, Özyeğin, Papko, OMM – Odunpazarı Modern Museum, Arkas, Demsa and the Sabancı Collection, as well as in family collections including Summart-Bora and Büyükkuşoğlu.

My works are also held in private collections and venues across Türkiye, the United Kingdom, China, the United States, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Portugal and France.

In My Practice

My objective as an artist is to reach a pure source beyond time and space, free from all identities, and to bring my paintings to life by adding a unifying spirit to life.

I use my senses, feelings and observations, merging them with concepts to paint emotions onto my canvases.

I think of myself as a dreamer who gets excited by the unknown future. For me, the future represents newness, possibility and a renewed sense of presence. I believe that awareness of our own creativity and potential can guide us towards a better and happier future, both individually and collectively.

Colour and texture provide the basis of my paintings. Through repetition, layering, composition and light, I create movement and seek a sense of harmony.

Every piece I make represents a set of emotions and ideas that engage with physical, mental and energetic fields of resonance. My work considers questions of care, human rights, diversity, sustainability, boundaries and borders, while inviting the possibility of seeing and thinking about the world differently.

I continue my practice between my showroom and studio in Muswell Hill, London, and my studio in Seyrantepe, Istanbul.

From Geometric Paintings to Universal Fragments

My earlier works developed from my strong connection with geometry as a way of thinking and composing. The layered, multi-coloured geometric paintings I developed in the 2000s used the grid as a way to explore unity and space.

Around 2019, my practice shifted through a period of personal interrogation and an exploration of my relationship with reality. I began to move away from the grid towards more intuitive and expressionist compositions, using colour and light to explore questions of belonging, identity and physical boundaries.

This process brought me closer to the micro scale of painting, where earlier grids became sources for new connections, as if I were excavating through layers of experience.

My personal experience also led me to focus more deeply on my sense of self, spirituality and connection with nature, looking beyond the physically visible towards consciousness and spiritual awareness.

Modular Infinity

Oil painting has been my main medium since my studies. Alongside my paintings, I have developed Infinity, an interactive installation composed of hundreds of small canvases, or “units”, measuring 5 × 5 cm and 10 × 10 cm.

Infinity began during lockdown as a meditative exercise and an area of play. The installation invites audiences to touch, move and rearrange the units, creating new compositions.

I have devised three versions: a two-dimensional magnetic surface, a three-dimensional magnetic cube, and a portable version that audiences can take home and activate.

I am also developing print and digital versions of Infinity, allowing audiences in different locations to participate and create their own compositions.

Memory of Colours

I keep a diary of the colours I use in my paintings, an archive that has grown over more than a decade. The Colour Diaries document my ongoing relationship with colour, material and painting, and have themselves become part of my artistic practice.
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EDUCATION

2027-2026 Royal College of Arts, MA, Painting, London
2019  London Creative Network, Artist Business Development, London
2004-2007 Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar University,
MA Institute of Social Science, Painting Department, Istanbul
1999-2003 Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar University,  BFA Painting Department, Istanbul

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2026 "Emotional Landscapes", Ziraat Bankası Kuğulu Art Gallery, Ankara
2025  "Being At Home", D Contemporary Gallery, London
2025 "Alliance", D Contemporary Gallery, London
2024  "Being", Adas, Istanbul
2023 "Being: Limitless Limited", KunstMatrix
2019 “A Separate Reality”, Gallery Milli Reasurans, Istanbul
2017 "Possibilities", Work at the Yard, New York
2016  “Bird’s Eye View” Siyah Beyaz Gallery, Ankara
2016  “As Is”, Gallery Merkur, Istanbul
2014  "Territory", Gallery Zilberman, İstanbul
2012  "The Initial Home - Leia" AlanIstanbul , Istanbul
2011  “Simple Present Tense”, CDA Projects, Istanbul
2009  “Lonely Moment”, Mithatpaşa Art Gallery, Ziraat Bank, Ankara
2001  "The End ", Personal Studio Space, İstanbul

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Zeitgeist, Anna Laudel Gallery, Düsseldorf
2026 Forgive Me, Please- Bağışla Beni N’olur, Istanbul Art Museum, Istanbul
2025  Abstraction as Method: Anatomy Of A Practice, Curator Ipek Yeğinsü, Belm’Art Space,  Ankara
2025 Modern and Contemporary Encounters in Turkish Art, Curator Yahşi Baraz,  Inspera, Bodrum
2025   New Era, Mine Sanat Gallery, Caresse , Bodrum
2022  Reduction to Satire, NADA , Curator Fatos Ustek, NewYork
2022 Work on Paper, Blue Shop Cottage, London
2022 Habitat, Contemporary Six, Manchester
2021 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2021 Non Prescription II, Ekav Art gallery, Istanbul
2020 Idle Thoughts, Gallery Soho Revue, London
2020 Abstract Art, Rise Art, Venue, London
2018 99 Square, Gallery Arton, Istanbul
2018 Collection, Arab British Chamber of Commerce, London
2018 FICF, Germany & Netherland
2018 Less is Bore, Artnivo, Istanbul
2017 Interstices, Art Else Where, Stour Space Gallery, London
2017  "Schnittstelle Istanbul", Eller Kultur Bahnhof, Dusseldorf, Germany
2017  "Imago Mundi", Mediterranean Route, Palermo, Italy
2017  "Artificial Nature" with Coskun Demirok, Schloss Neersen Gallery, Düsseldorf
2016  “Multiples”, Kuad Gallery, Istanbul
2015  “Encounter” Imoga Art Gallery, Istanbul
2015  “Exhibition of 20th Anniversary”, Milli Reasurans Art Gallery, Istanbul
2015  Trelex Art Residency Open Studio and Exhibition, Geneva,
2015  “The Nominative Case”, Casa dell’arte, Torba, Bodrum
2015  “Fine Tuned and Multiple”, Kuad Gallery, Istanbul
2015  “Nothing Exceptional”, Gallery Konrad Moenter, Düsseldorf
2014  “Small is Beautiful”, Kuad Gallery, Istanbul
2014  “Topology”, PG Art Gallery, Istanbul
2014  “A Gift For Nazım”, Nazım Hikmet Culture Center, Istanbul
2013  “ODTU Art 14”, ODTU, Ankara
2012   Art Platform, Los Angeles, Gallery Zilberman, Los Angeles
2011  “Now I Am Not Here”, Kervansaray, Istanbul
2010  “Exhibition of the Century”,  Collection of T.C. Ziraat Bank, Cer Modern, Ankara
2010  “Cold Elements”, Akademililer Art Center, Istanbul
2010  “Young Artists”, MKM, Istanbul 
2009  “My Name is Casper”, 216 Zone, Sümerbank&Karsı Art Works, Istanbul
2009  “Memory Book: Moda”, 216 Thinking And Production Zone, Istanbul
2009   Summart Campus 09, Moldova
2005  “Young Expansion” in Contemporary Turkish Art, Pera Museum, Istanbul 
2005  “Multicultural Identity: Cultural Heritage, Art, Image”, Ankara & Eskisehir 
2002  “Taste”, Is Bank Parmakkapı Art Gallery, Istanbul

PERFORMANCE

2003  Visibility Project, Büyük Sadıkpaşa Apt., Galata Perform, İstanbul

AWARDS &SCHOLARSHIP

2021 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2019 LCN, EU Artist Business Development, Scholarship
2016  Artist Of The Year Award by Farplas
2009  RH + Young Artist /2008, Private Award

ART RESIDENCIES

2016  La Maison de Barbara, Ayvalık, Türkiye
2015  Trelex Residency, Geneva, Switzerland

SYMPOSIUM & WORKSHOPS

2019 Povital Moment, LCN+Space, London
2017 2.nd Workshop of Nilüfer, Bursa
2015 Boll Werk, Lepsien Art Foundation, Dusseldorf
2014 Dreams Academy Kaş, Antalya
2009 Training program With Sarkis, Istanbul Modern Museum
2009 Summart Campus, Moldova
2004 Litography Workshop, Aksanat, Istanbul
2002 Iş Bank, "Taste" Workshop, Istanbul
2002 Borusan Exlibris Studio, Istanbul

ARTIST TALKS

2025 Being At Home, with Bige Orer, D Contemporary Gallery, London
2021  Meet the Artist with Phin Jennings, Avenue Saint James, London
2016  United Nations Women Entrepreneurship Day, Aksoy Holding, Istanbul          
2016  “As Is”, Speakers: Seçil Erel, Emre Zeytinoğlu, Gallery Merkur, Istanbul
2014  “Territory", Speakers: Seçil Erel, Fırat Arapoğlu, Gallery Zilberman, İstanbul

PUBLICATIONS

2020 Review, Life and Art with Seçil Erel, Publisher: Rise Art, writer Phin Jennings
2019 A Separate Reality, Milli Reasürans Art Gallery, writer: Fatoş Üstek 
2016 Seçil Erel Artist Monograph, Publisher: IMOGA (Istanbul Museum Of Graphic Arts) writer Emre Zeytinoğlu
2015 Bora Collection, Publisher: Summart
2015 Imoga Mundi, Istanbul Codex, Publisher: Benetton Foundation
2010 Exhibition of the Century”, Publisher: T.C. Ziraat Bank