ISTANBUL.- Arter opens its new season on September 11 with Velvet Stare, which marks Nilbar Güreş’s first institutional solo exhibition in Türkiye.

Alongside the new addition to its programme, Arter also presents two ongoing exhibitions: the group exhibition Under Pressure Above Water and Franz Erhard Walther’s solo exhibition Attempt to be a Sculpture.

Nilbar Güreş: Velvet Stare
Curator: Emre Baykal
September 11, 2025–April 12, 2026

Velvet Stare delves into Nilbar Güreş’s practice, which blurs the boundaries between humans and non-humans, reality and fiction, representation and abstraction. Presenting an extensive selection spanning the artist’s early pieces to her most recent productions, the exhibition encompasses works realised in diverse media, including painting, engraving, collage, photography, sculpture, and video.

Blending storytelling with critical and dissenting narratives, Güreş creates a vibrant universe where humans, animals, plants, and mythological elements are intertwined and envisioned through ever-shifting connections. Infused with a strong capacity for generating new vocabularies that particularly challenge gender norms, her works subvert the binary and polarising structures shaping our understanding of the world through unexpected affinities and, by undermining established patterns of thought, invite viewers to explore alternative modes of coexistence.

The exhibition is also accompanied by an in-depth publication that examines the different layers of Güreş’s production through new texts by Emre Baykal, Silvia Eiblmayr and Lora Sarıaslan.