Merve Dündar is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice focuses on how language, social norms, and sensory experiences shape emotional perception and construct our sense of self and reality. Her work questions how reality is structured through invisible codes and inherited systems. Drawing from personal reflections, she seeks to evoke shared feelings and open spaces for reflecting on what we think we know.
She works across drawing, sculpture, installation, text-based media, and participatory projects that invite audience contribution. Working with humble and fragile materials — including used paper, stitching, and chalk dust — she often returns to paper in its many forms as a central medium. In her ongoing engagement with language, she treats words as both material and subject. Repetition, rhythm, layering, and acts of deconstruction and reconstruction are recurring formal strategies in her work.
Education
2012 - 2016
MA, Master of Plastic Arts, Graduate school of Social Sciences, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey
2015
1986 - 1990
"Irina Nakhova" Workshop at Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts
Boğaziçi University, Economics
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2019
2022
"Which One is Heavy Which One is Real", Galeri Bu, İstanbul
"The Wave in the Mind", Mixer Project Room, İstanbul
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
2023
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2021
2021
2020
2020
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2018
2018
2018
2018
2017
2016
2016
2016
2015
2014
"Reading Meaning", Curator: Sevda Süzer, Starting from The Middle, Artİstanbul Feshane, İstanbul
“Medium Mix for the Collectors”, Art Z Galeri Alaçatı, İzmir
“En Sevdiğim Yere Giden Yol”, Küratör: Gencer Uçar, BonVivant, İzmir
"Belleğe Çağrılar”, Galeri 11.17, İstanbul
Who She / She Who, Galeri Merkür, İstanbul
“Bulanık mesafe”, Galeri Bu, İstanbul
"Psytic", Taksim Sanat, İstanbul
“Intervention” The Artisan Istanbul Otel, Istanbul
"Confrontation", Curator: Marcus Graf, Pera Müzesi, Istanbul
"Step Istanbul", Galeri Bu, Istanbul
"İçimdeki Tanrıça", Küratör: İpek Yeğinsu, Art50.net ile, Swissôtel The. Bosphorus, İstanbul
"Artweeks@Akaretler" artSumer ile, Istanbul
"Standard, Curator: Melike Bayık, Adas, Istanbul
"Standard", Curator: Melike Bayık, Eldem Sanat Alanı, Eskişehir
Step İstanbul, Galeri Bu ile,İstanbul
"Uzak Geçmiş Zaman" Renart, Istanbul
"Ayn-ı Galip" Galip Project-Pasaj, Istanbul
Kadınlar Yaşasın Diye, Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu, Sosyal Sorumluluk Projesi, Karga Art – Istanbul
"Bir Yaz Gecesi Rüyası",Casa Dell'Arte Art50 ile, Bodrum
"Dinamo 3", Swissotel Büyük Efes, Izmir
"Gang" by Sanayi Project, İstanbul
"Teşbihte Hata Olmaz", Mixer, Istanbul
"Out of the Way", Artist 2017 İstanbul Sanat Fuarı, Galeri Bu ile
"Yeditepe de Zaman VI-Hayatta Kal", Ortaköy Kültür Merkezi, İstanbul
"Pan Echo", Galeri Bu, İstanbul
"Out of the Way" Artist 2017 İstanbul Sanat Fuarı, Galeri Bu ile, Istanbul
"Dinamo 2", Swissotel Büyük Efes, İzmir
"Yeditepe de Zaman IV-Çok Sesli Yaklaşımlar", Ekavart Gallery, İstanbul