Six decades of Ergin Inan
Also this week: from glass art to drifting islands.
Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.
As the Istanbul Biennial dominates the city’s conversation, you might crave a quieter refuge: Try EArt Gallery in Kagithane, where Ergin Inan’s six-decade retrospective unfolds in serene, luminous layers. Also on our radar: a glassware homage to ceramic pioneer Fureya Koral, a string of fresh gallery openings from Nisantasi to Beyoglu and some scary numbers on the winter of our discontent.
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: Between Time and Traces
Ergin Inan, with his recent works (Courtesy of EArt Gallery)
If the biennial buzz feels like too much chatter, detour to Kagithane, where EArt Gallery hosts “Between Time and Traces: Ergin Inan 1964-2025,” curated by Marcus Graf. The show spans six decades of one of Turkey’s most inventive minds, tracing his journey from Malatya to Munich and back to his sunlit studio in Urla, near Izmir.
Described by Inan himself as a “mini-retrospective,” the exhibition unfolds in six chronological sections, gathering drawings, gravures, paintings and collages alongside the artist’s writings and photographs.
Born in 1943, Inan studied at the Istanbul State Academy of Applied Fine Arts before heading to Germany in the early 1970s, where Bauhaus precision met Anatolian mysticism. His early portraits from the 1960s probed the human face as an emotional landscape. By the 1970s, insects, which became his signature in paintings, began to creep into his canvases, accompanied by Byzantine halos, Ottoman calligraphy and Quranic manuscripts. Long before “cross-cultural” became a buzzword, Inan fused these influences into a luminous visual language, inspiring generations of art students as he taught at Marmara University.
A scene from the exhibition (Courtesy of Eart Gallery)
His paintings at the exhibition shimmer with Sufi undertones, Kafkaesque unease and modernist discipline — a blend so distinct it earned him the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Prize in 2010. In his late works, calligraphic fragments and spectral figures merge, text dissolving into pigment. His recent abstract paintings display spots of paint on a brighter background such as red, pink and purple — a reflection of a cosmos created by all the contrasts such as the combination of hot with cold, black with white and light with darkness.
“Although his visual language has evolved across different periods and contexts, Inan’s work continues to center on the fragility of human existence, the persistence of memory and the spiritual depth of the self,” Graf said.
📍 Where: Merkez Mahallesi Ayazma Caddesi Cuha Sokak No:3 Kagıthane
🗓️ When: Until Nov. 2
2. Word on the street: Fureya fever
Fureya’s black and white coffee cups (Courtesy of Nazlan Ertan)
No, it’s not a new restaurant this week — it’s something you’ll want to sip from. Turkey’s main glassmaker, Pasabahce, has launched a new “Fureya Collection,” turning everyday cups, vases and bowls into tributes to Turkey’s first female ceramicist, Fureya Koral.
Inspired by Koral’s iconic blue-and-earth palette, the collection brings a touch of mid-century poise to the table. It’s also the latest chapter in Pasabahce’s long-running dialogue with art and design. Previous lines have drawn on the refined minimalism of Alev Ebuzziya Siesbye and the playful illustrations of Selcuk Demirel — proof that glass can speak many artistic languages, from serene to sly.
3. Istanbul diary
“Untitled” by Sidar Baki at “When No One’s Looking” (Courtesy of C.A.M.)
These are the last few days to visit Sidar Baki’s “When No One’s Looking” at C.A.M. Gallery, which places child figures in ruined spaces, turning decay into imagination. Until Oct. 31.
Evin Art Gallery in Bebek opens the season with Hakan Gursoytrak’s “Velhasil,” (“In Short”), exploring institutional hierarchies and absurd order. On view until Nov. 15.
At Anna Laudel Istanbul, Italian artist Daniele Sigalot’s “And Now for Something Completely Different” blends irony and color in witty sculptural, paper and neon works. Until Nov. 9.
4. Book of the week: “Snapping Point”
With the elections in Northern Cyprus, no wonder my mind drifts to islands. In “Snapping Point,” newly translated by Feyza Howell, Asli Bicen turns the surreal premise of a “drifting island” into a sharp allegory of power, fear and fragile resistance.
One of Turkey’s most respected critics and editors, Omer Turkes, reminds us that the island is a long-standing metaphor in Turkish literature — from Zulfu Livaneli’s “The Last Island” to Cuneyt Arcayurek’s political satire “Ku-De-Ta” — often used to explore the country’s uneasy relationship with military dictatorships. Turkes also notes that Bicen’s story winks at Jose Saramago’s “The Tale of the Unknown Island,” where the Iberian Peninsula breaks away from Europe and drifts into the Atlantic — a distant cousin, thematically, to Bicen’s Anatolian island floating toward Greece.
A gifted translator of hard-to-translate prose, including Lawrence Durrell’s “Tunc” and “Nunquam” and Anthony Burgess’ “Mozart and the Wolf Gang,” Bicen writes with the same mastery she translates — a pleasure to read in both Turkish and English.
5. (Beyond) Istanbul gaze
Joachim Romain with the likeness of Auntie Nazmiye on the mural at Daragac, Izmir (Courtesy of French Cultural Center, Izmir)
French street artist Joachim Romain brings his signature layering of posters, textures and time to Izmir’s Daragac neighborhood. Romain’s work in Daragac — a vivid mural featuring local resident Auntie Nazmiye — fuses European street art energy with Izmir’s lived, local stories.
6. By the numbers
Gallup’s inaugural “State of the World’s Emotional Health” report, launched with the World Health Summit, offers an unsettling snapshot of how the world feels … and Turkey, it seems, feels worse.
Across 144 countries, 39% of adults said they felt worried the previous day, 37% stressed, 26% sad and 22% angry. In Turkey, those figures climb to 42% worried, 57% stressed, 31% sad and 30% angry — all well above the global average.
Just 17% of respondents in Turkey said they learned or did something interesting the previous day (one of the lowest rates worldwide), driving home Gallup’s conclusions that in fragile societies, anxiety spikes while curiosity fades.