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Hakkımda

1987 yılında İstanbul’da doğdum. Sanat eğitimime Marmara Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi Heykel Bölümü’nde başladım ve 2009 yılında mezun oldum. Bu süreçte, Bihrat Mavitan ve Güngör Güner atölyelerinde geçirdiğim yıllar, malzemeyle kurduğum ilişkiyi ve üç boyutlu düşünme biçimimi derinleştirdi. Sadece heykel değil, formun, hacmin ve boşluğun duygusal anlatıdaki rolüyle ilgilenmeye başladım.

Sanat yolculuğum, farklı disiplinlerle kesişerek devam etti. Beykent Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü’nde Tekstil ve Moda Tasarımı üzerine yüksek lisans yaparak 2011 yılında mezun oldum. Yüksek lisans tezimi, Frigya uygarlığının simgesel desenlerini günümüz tekstil desenlerine uyarlayarak tamamladım. Bu süreç, kültürel mirasımızla kurduğum bağı daha da derinleştirdi ve sanat pratiğime güçlü bir yön verdi.

About the Artist — Melis Arslan

I was born in Istanbul in 1987, and my artistic journey began with a deep fascination for form, material, and the emotional resonance of three-dimensional space. I studied Sculpture at Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts, graduating in 2009. My formative years in the studios of Bihrat Mavitan and Güngör Güner profoundly shaped the foundation of my practice—teaching me not only the physical language of clay, stone, and volume, but also how form, void, and mass can become vessels for emotional and symbolic storytelling.

During these years, sculpture became more than a discipline for me; it evolved into a way of thinking—an exploration of how the body, memory, and material interact within space.

My artistic path continued to expand across disciplines. I completed my Master’s degree in Textile and Fashion Design at Beykent University in 2011. For my thesis, I reinterpreted symbolic patterns of the Phrygian civilization and translated them into contemporary textile designs. This research deepened my connection to Anatolia’s cultural heritage and opened a new dimension in my work: the blending of archaeology, mythology, and material experimentation.

This interdisciplinary foundation now forms the core of my artistic identity. Whether I work with clay, textile, watercolor, relief, or mixed media, my practice consistently returns to themes of cultural memory, sacred symbolism, and the metaphysical presence of the human figure. By engaging with ancient motifs through a contemporary lens, I aim to bridge personal narrative with collective history—inviting viewers into a space where past and present, myth and material, can coexist and speak to one another.

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Sanat Anlayışım

Sanat benim için, geçmişin izlerini bugünün duyarlılığıyla birleştirme yolculuğu. Eğitim hayatım boyunca özellikle Antik Anadolu medeniyetlerine, mitlerine ve çizimlerine duyduğum ilgi, zamanla üretimlerimin temelini oluşturmaya başladı.

Frigya’dan Hitit’e, Karya’dan Urartu’ya uzanan uygarlıkların mitolojik katmanlarını; desenleri, sembolleri ve hikâyeleri aracılığıyla bugüne taşımayı seviyorum. Eserlerimde bu kadim sembolleri yeniden yorumluyor, çağdaş bir estetikle günümüz insanına seslenen bir dile dönüştürüyorum.

Anadolu toprakları, katman katman bir hafıza gibi… Ben de bu hafızayı dinlemeyi, onunla bağ kurmayı ve çağdaş yorumlarla yeniden anlatmayı seçiyorum. Her form, her desen bir hikâye taşıyor; ben bu hikâyelerin yeniden doğuşuna tanıklık etmeyi seviyorum.

Melis Arslan 

Art, for me, is a journey through time—an act of weaving the traces of ancient civilizations into the sensitivities of the present. Throughout my education and practice, I found myself consistently drawn to the myths, symbols, and visual languages of Ancient Anatolia. Over the years, this fascination transformed from an academic curiosity into the foundation of my artistic identity.

From Phrygia to the Hittites, from Caria to Urartu, the civilizations that once shaped these lands continue to speak through their motifs, archetypes, and mythic narratives. In my work, I strive to carry these echoes into the contemporary world—reinterpreting ancestral symbols and translating their timeless resonance into a modern visual language.

Anatolia is a landscape layered with memory; it holds centuries of belief, ritual, migration, and imagination within its soil. I see myself as a listener to this buried archive. My practice involves engaging with these remnants not as relics of the past, but as living forms capable of rebirth. Each line, each carved gesture, each textile pattern carries a story waiting to be reawakened.

I am drawn to the moment where the ancient and the contemporary touch—where a forgotten motif can suddenly speak to a modern viewer, where mythology becomes emotion, and where form becomes a bridge between eras. In this space, I reimagine these symbols with a sensibility rooted in both sculpture and textile, allowing them to shift, transform, and find new meaning in the present.

Ultimately, my work is an act of witnessing the rebirth of stories:
a dialogue between the visible and the invisible, the material and the mythological, the intimate and the universal.
Through each piece, I aim to create a quiet opening—an encounter where the viewer can feel the pulse of an ancient memory within a contemporary body.