Meltem Karakuyu Sanguder

Meltem Karakuyu (1986, Turkey) is an award-winning contemporary artist living and working in the Netherlands. Her practice unfolds through processes of movement, displacement, and transformation, shaped by her transnational trajectory from Turkey to Prague and, most recently, to the Netherlands.
She began her academic career in Turkey as a Research Assistant in the Fine Arts Education Department at Uludağ University in 2009 and was awarded the title of Associate Professor in 2019. She holds a PhD in art, and her academic background continues to inform both the conceptual depth and methodological framework of her artistic practice. Alongside her studio work, she leads private lessons and workshops for young artists, maintaining a strong commitment to education and knowledge-sharing.
Karakuyu’s work engages deeply with the urban environment as both a physical and conceptual construct. Her visual language reflects the accumulation, fragmentation, and transformation of urban memory, tracing how histories overlap, erode, and are continuously reconstructed. These processes are expressed through layered compositions of lines and forms, reminiscent of the way new civilizations are built upon the remnants of previous ones—creating surfaces ...

PhD in Faculty of Art and Design, Yıldız Teknik University, 2017

MA in Fine Arts Education, Uludağ University, 2012

BA in Fine Arts Education, Dokuz Eylül University, 2007

AWARDS

2014 Curator award for "Perspective-Reverspectiv" exhibition, Uludag University, TURKEY

2014 Young Scientist and Artist Award, Uludag University, , TURKEY

2012 Master Degree Success award Uludag University, Bursa, TURKEY

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND COMPETITIONS

2020 Kybele themed group exhibition, Trump Art Gallery, Istanbul, TURKEY

2019 Artist 29th International Istanbul Art Fair, TUYAP Fair and Congress Center, Istanbul, TURKEY

2018 Artist 28th International Istanbul Art Fair, TUYAP Fair and Congress Center, Istanbul,TURKEY

2018 1st International Printmaking Competition Exhibition Small, Trakya University Faculty of Fine Arts, Balkan Congress Center, TURKEY

2018 IVth International Afro-Eurasian Studies Congress Exhibition, Budapest, HUNGARY

2018 EXHIPORT Paper Works Exhibition, Made by Artist VIIth International Paris Art and Design Symposium, Pinelo Art Gallery, Paris, FRANCE

2018 2nd International Art, Aesthetics Symposium and Exhibition, Firat University, TURKEY

2018 International Group Exhibition, Pinelo Art Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN

2018 ARTANKARA 4th International Contemporary Art Fair, TURKEY

2018 New Generation Painters Exhibition, Arda Art Gallery, ANKARA, TURKEY

2018 UPSD World Art Day Exhibition, UPSD Gallery, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

2018 International Women's Day Exhibition, Giresun University Rectorate Foyer Area, TURKEY

2018 Local Codes Global Forms Mixed Art Exhibition, Şişli Municipality Art Gallery, Istanbul, TURKEY

2017 Blue th...