Selma Gürbüz

Gürbüz was born in Istanbul in 1960.[1] She started her art education in 1978 at Exeter College in England in the fields of painting, photography and theater. She studied painting and sculpture at Exeter College of Art and Design between 1980 and 1982. She graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting in 1984. She opened her first solo exhibition in Istanbul in 1986.

She continued her work in her studio in Istanbul.

She was one of Turkey's leading names in contemporary art. Her works are in the collections of British Museum in London, Fondation Maeght in Paris, SantralIstanbul in Istanbul, Istanbul Bilgi University, İstanbul Modern and Proje 4L, and State Art and Sculpture Museum in Ankara. In addition to painting, she has also produced works in various forms such as sculpture, weaving and engraving, and also worked as the artistic director of Ömer Kavur's films Akrebin Yolculuğu (1997) and Karşılash (2002).

In order to better understand the artist and her works, there are several publications including "Selma Gürbüz: Shadows of My Self", edited by Rose Issa and published in London, 2011; a guidebook named "Three Writings for Selma Gürbüz" written by Ferit Edgü was published in 2013;[2] and her latest monograph "Dünya Diye Bir Yer (This Place we call world)", Istanbul Modern, 2021, corresponding to her solo show at Istanbul Modern.

Gürbüz ranked 425th in Artprice's list of the top 500 best-selling contemporary artists in the world in 2016.[3]

She died in Istanbul on 22 April 2021, at the age of 61 from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey.[4]