ARTIST BIO

Elif Olmez was born in Turkey in 1988. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Anadolu University in Eskişehir in 2013. In 2017, she completed her Master of Fine Arts (MA) with a thesis in Painting within the Department of Plastic Arts at Doğuş University. She pursued her Proficiency in Art (PhD equivalent) in Plastic Arts at Yeditepe University. In 2025, she earned her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting from the New York Academy of Art.

Her work has been widely exhibited in Turkey, the United States, and internationally. Notable exhibitions include Deck the Walls in New York (December 2023–2024), May Open Studio and the Tribecaball Exhibition (2024–2025), Resonance at Warnes Gallery (September 2025), and Let Freedom Bring at Powerhouse Arts (November 2025). In Istanbul, she participated in IAFF at Neo Art Gallery and presented her solo exhibition Animal Carnival at Maji Art Gallery. She has also taken part in group exhibitions at venues such as Carré d’Artistes Gallery and Luna Art Gallery.

Olmez lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where she maintains an active studio practice. She is represented by several galleries in New York, and her works are included in numerous private collections in Turkey.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The works are grounded in the relationship between existential philosophy and painting, aiming to reveal the unsettling reflections of this relationship on the human mind and body. The figures developed within this framework examine the psychologically isolated and overlooked individual. In the paintings, the space—harmonized with the figure through color and texture—emerges through abstract-realist imagery in the background, creating a more restrained and simplified spatial perception.

While geometric forms and objects are incorporated, the depicted environment is rendered as minimal as possible. The symbolic function of color serves the dramatic atmosphere, and figures integrated into this atmosphere reflect human psychological states through distorted portraits and figural representations.