British art finds feeling in Istanbul

Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

Roses, cabbage and Ottoman secrets: While the Biennial buzz fills Beyoglu and Karakoy, it’s worth slowing down for Lucian Freud’s “Girl with Roses“ at Pera Museum, Efendy’s duck pastilla and an alternative-history thriller.

If you want to receive this newsletter or our other new weekly City Pulse newsletters — for Doha, Dubai and Riyadh — sign up here.

Thanks for reading,

Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

Also, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram: @citypulsealm

1. Leading the week: A rose by any other name

Lucian Freud’s “Girl with Roses” (Courtesy of the British Council Collection)

Let’s not have this great exhibition disappear in the Istanbul Biennial rush. Pera Museum’s "Feelings in Common," curated by Ulya Soley, brings punch and big names to Istanbul’s fall art scene. Drawn from the British Council Collection, a "museum without walls" that has been collecting since the 1930s, the show gathers 29 artists, from Lucian Freud to Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst to David Hockney, under one emotional roof.

Inspired by feminist theorist Sara Ahmed, the show argues that while emotion has long been treated as reason’s poor cousin, it flips that script, asking whether shared feeling might now hold the power to reconnect us after all.

Among the standouts, Lucian Freud’s "Girl with Roses" (main picture) is a haunting portrait of his young wife, Kitty Garman, newly pregnant, clutching a rose while another wilts in her lap. Nearby hangs Anya Gallaccio’s work of 500 red gerberas, left to decay throughout the show, paired with Graham Fagen’s bronze-enamel “Rose,” a nod to his Glasgow project inviting residents to name a new flower bred in their community.

Anya Gallaccio’s “Preserve Beauty” (Photo Nazlan Ertan)

David Hockney’s "Man in a Museum (or You’re in the Wrong Movie)" winks at the act of looking itself, while Tracey Emin’s "Something’s Wrong," a female figure on an applique blanket with coins spilling from between her legs, reclaims value, memory and her own roots, as the British and Turkish coins glinting like breadcrumbs from a life traveled.

📍 Where: Pera Museum, Asmalı Mescit, Mesrutiyet Cd. No: 65, Beyoğlu

🗓️ When: Until Jan. 18, 2026

2. Word on the street: Efendy

Who’d believe that this kebab is made of cabbage, a winter menu specialty? (Courtesy of Efendy)

Sydney’s loss, Istanbul’s gain. Chef Somer Sivrioglu, best known from his acclaimed Sydney restaurant that hosted guests like Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, brings Efendy to Levent with partner Berk Cemail. Born in Kadikoy to a restaurateur mother, Sivrioglu blends precise technique with the depth of Anatolian flavors. Do not leave without tasting the root vegetables salad, the kilis pie of minced meat kebab, potato puree, charred vegetables, and, if you prefer Moroccan over Anatolian, the duck pastilla.

📍 Where: Nispetiye Cd. No:13 Levent

3. Istanbul diary

Suzanne Lacy’s “Whisper, the Waves, the Wind” (Courtesy of Sakip Sabanci Museum)

• Suzanne Lacy’s “Birlikte/Together” at the Sakip Sabanci Museum presents the American pioneer of feminist and participatory art through five decades of work on solidarity, aging and social justice. Until Dec. 14.

• Artweeks Istanbul XII takes over Akaretler Siraevler and the Ritz-Carlton Residences from Oct. 15 to 26, turning two of Istanbul’s most iconic addresses into a contemporary art corridor. This year’s edition gathers over 40 galleries and independent artists, with standout shows alongside installations, panels and site-specific works that spill out into the city’s streets and courtyards.

• Hungarian virtuoso Marton Borsanyi brings the Opus Amadeus Organ Festival to a close on Oct. 22 at St. Antoine Church, Beyoglu, blending baroque masters with Bartok’s Hungarian folk themes in a program that bridges centuries. Tickets here.