Contemporary Istanbul’s Uneven Roster Saw Foreign Galleries Making the Strongest Case for Turkish Art

Istanbul’s mythology continues to hold great sway beyond its borders. Starting in November, the city will be celebrated in London at the V&A South Kensington through a wide array of objects from its collection as well as national and international loans, some from as early as the 4th Century. “Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires” will explore more than a thousand years of artistic production across the successive Byzantine (AD 330-1453) and Ottoman (1453-1922) empires. More than 200 relics—ranging from fine silks and textiles to mosaics and architectural fragments to works on paper and manuscripts—attest to the legacy of Turkish creativity.

But what does Turkish creativity mean today? Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey’s international art fair held last week at Tersane, provides a glimpse of art from territories both adjacent to and beyond the region of the Black Sea. The more worldly cousin of CI Bloom, a spring art fair featuring exclusively Turkish art spaces, it brought together 70 galleries from 16 countries, with 22 first-time participants.

During a press conference, chairman and fair director Ali Güreli described a more “cautious and deliberate” art world resulting from the “general psychology” of malaise economically and politically in the world. He cited Middle East-based fairs as creating healthy competition for Istanbul. He believed that, locally, high income consumers and a new generation could potentially usher in a fresh wave of Turkish collectors (“they will learn,” Güreli assured). He lamented the lack of tax incentives for corporate collections, but pointed out that galleries at Contemporary Istanbul receive operational support via Turkish Airlines in the form of free airport-to-airport airfreight (up to 400 kg from multiple points of origin). In addition, the global customs bond (equivalent to 20 percent of the declared value of the artworks) is covered by the fair. These factors create favorable conditions for foreigners.

But Suela Cennet, a gallerist with a space in Istanbul called The Pill, which did not participate in the fair, pointed out that local galleries, by contrast, unfairly pay quite exorbitantly, in the five figures for a booth, often because they don’t have access to other fairs. They need to participate in the market, and don’t have the finances or network to expand abroad, so they suck up the cost.

The Pill participated twice in 10 years in previous iterations of Contemporary Istanbul, but was underwhelmed. Cennet’s link to Europe—she has a sister space in Paris, where she was born—gives her more options. “It’s paradoxical because you want to support your local market,” she told Observer. “I’m not saying the other models are perfect, but their offers are far more appealing. We will participate in Art Basel Paris, which is three weeks ahead, and we choose to focus on curating the best experience possible for our clients in this perspective. I’m 100 percent confident about my choice [not to participate in the fair in Istanbul] and I don’t have any FOMO.” The gallerist insisted it’s not about snobbery, but that it’s just “not an attractive market place for the circulation of art.”

The circulation of art at the fair did indeed spur an ambivalent feeling. Commuting between Hall A and Hall B at Tersane, one could experience both the sacred (the call of the muezzin) and the profane (an ugly sculpture by Johnny Depp, who simply refuses to be canceled). Across the board, the taste ecosystem at Contemporary Istanbul was a vast one. Many international galleries presented work on par with what one might find at qualitative art fairs beyond the Bosphorus, but many local galleries showcased work that skewed extremely kitsch.

Dirimart, which has spaces in Istanbul and London, is the exception. The gallery has been participating in Contemporary Istanbul and CI Bloom since their respective beginnings. (The gallery also shows at Frieze Seoul, Art Cologne, Art Dubai and Art Basel Unlimited.) Sales strategy director Yeşim Uygur emphasized Dirimart has “been active in the Turkish art market for 25 years,” and so participating domestically is a given: “It’s very important for us to connect with our local collectors.” Uygur noticed a “different cultural awareness” in a younger generation who are not shy to ask for prices and who don’t find art “unapproachable.” She feels Istanbul Contemporary played a part in “breaking that intimidation.”

Dirimart includes artists represented elsewhere by other blue chip galleries, like Tony Cragg, but continues to highlight younger artists from Turkey and often presents them for the first time abroad. For example, the gallery was at the Armory Show in New York City last week, presenting Çiğdem Aky in a solo booth.

At Method Gallery, based in New Delhi—one of just five galleries to reflect the “Focus Asia” theme, alongside Pearl Lam Projects (Hong Kong, Shanghai), Whitestone Gallery (Tokyo, Seoul), Takato Kano Gallery (Tokyo), Silk Art House Gallery (Singapore)—the spare, elegant booth showcased three artists. Two were from India but living abroad, alongside a Pakistani artist who the gallery makes a point to show outside of India, since the work can’t be shown within the country. Berlin-based Latika Nehra explores spirituality via ceramic tiles, while Toronto-based Kunel Gaur uses sleek materials inspired by urban design. Pakistani artist Shamir Iqtidar examines intimate slice-of-life moments featuring men in “heightened states of comfort,” gallery founder Sahil Arora noted. It was the gallery’s first time in Istanbul, having participated previously in ARCO Madrid and ARCO Lisbon as well as several Indian art fairs. “We like the city,” Arora told Observer of testing the fair; it was an autumn alternative after a mixed experience at Asia Now in 2025. The gallery opened in 2019 and makes a point of highlighting emerging young artists: the works in the booth ranged from €3,000-8,000.

Galeria Francisco Fino, based in Lisbon, was also drawn to Istanbul for the lore of the metropolis. “It’s one of my favorite cities in the world,” the namesake founder and director enthused. He noted similarities between Istanbul and Lisbon “geographically, topographically and even the people; I’ve always felt at home.” The gallery, nearing its 10-year anniversary, represents Turkish artist Ali Kazma, who had four photographs in the booth (and had participated in several editions of the Istanbul Biennale, the latest in 2011). “Since he doesn’t have a gallery in Turkey, we decided to show him to be supportive of his work,” Fino said of Kazma. Participating in the fair “was an experiment”—but in the first two hours, the gallery sold six works, including a photograph by Helena Almeida for €100,000, two photographs by Kazma (€4,000 each) and a piece by David Maljković (€45,000). Negotiation for a neon by Alfredo Jaar, Culture=Capital priced at €90,000, was in the works. Fino is part of the selection committee for ARCO Madrid and the Art Brussels Discovery section; the gallery also participates locally at ARCO Lisbon and will be at Frieze London. Contemporary Istanbul is now joining this roster for Fino: “I can guarantee you that I’ll be back next year, for sure.”

Artist connections to the territory also motivated carlier | gebauer (Madrid, Berlin) to participate. “For us, it was very much a decision led by… the fact that [Lúcia Koch is] showing a site-specific installation at Arter,” said Sales Director Shahane Hakobyan. “It [made] sense for us to have a presence in the city, when our artist is showing something so beautiful here.” The gallery considered what would be interesting to bring to the Turkish market as well as revisiting which artists had a pre-existing relationship to Turkey. “Julie Mehretu and Lúcia Koch participated in the Istanbul Biennale in the same year,” Hakobyan noted. “Palestinian artist Dor Guez has also participated in the Istanbul Biennale… what if we bring it all together?” Abdulhamid Kircher, who has Turkish origins, was showing work in Turkey for the first time: a C-print from a series about Turkish oil wrestling. The works in carlier | gebauer’s booth ranged from $5,000-125,000, with Mehretu’s work being the priciest.

Ultimately, the surprising aspect of the fair is that it reflected that the Turkish artists scouted and boosted by international tastemakers seemed best positioned to highlight the notable native scene.

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