Yeşim Akdeniz (b. 1978) graduated from Prof. Dieter Krieg's class in Art Academy Düsseldorf in 2002.

Akdeniz was invited by deAteliers Residency Program in Amsterdam in 2002 until 2004 and won the Kunstverein Bonn/Peter Mertes Stipendium in 2005. Her first solo exhibition in Turkey titled ‘Atlas Shrugged’ was held at Galerist in 2005. She became a professor at Art Academy Düsseldorf in 2017.

Yeşim Akdeniz's works contain symbolic narratives that make use of recognisable and existing forms of cultural production often emerging from or associated with exponents of modernism and the politics attached to them. In her practice, Akdeniz often involves well-known pieces of design, architecture as well as art historical references , through which she wonders about and responds to how the original ideological intentions of these designs have changed over time. In her latest works, Akdeniz focuses on orientalism, gender studies and cultural appropriation.

The artist currently lives and works between Brussels and Düsseldorf.