İpek Duben

İpek Duben’s (b. 1941) educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Agnes Scott College (1963) and a Master of Arts in political science from the University of Chicago (1965). She pursued doctoral studies in the same field, completing all requirements except the dissertation (ABD) by 1971. Transitioning to the arts, she studied drawing and anatomy with Robert Beverley Hale at the Art Students League in New York and furthered her education at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture between 1972 and 1976. She earned a PhD in Art History from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul in 1984. 

Duben has contributed significantly as a writer, critic, and educator. She has published critical texts on art history and contemporary Turkish art, including Türk Resmi ve Eleştirisi: 1880–1950 (2007) and the edited volumes Seksenlerde Türkiye’de Çağdaş Sanat: Yeni Açılımlar (2008) and Çağdaş Düşünce ve Sanat (1991). Her writings, collected in İpek Duben Yazı ve Söyleşileri 1978–2010 (SALT, 2016), offer insight into Turkey’s evolving art landscape. 

Duben has held numerous solo exhibitions, notably her career retrospective The Skin, Body and I at SALT Beyoğlu in Istanbul (2021). Other major solo shows include ’70- (Galerist, Istanbul, 2025), Angels and Clowns (Pi Artworks, Istanbul, 2020), In via incognita (Pi Artworks, London, 2018), They/Onlar (SALT Galata, 2015; Fabrica, Brighton and Brighton Festival, 2017), 2012 and Extracted Objects (Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul, 2012, 2011), and İpek Duben: A selection 1994-2009 (Aksanat, 2009-2010). 

Her work has been featured in international group exhibitions suchas the 13th and the 18th Istanbul Biennial (2013, 2025), Artists Making Books: Poetry to Politics (The British Museum, London, 2022-2023), MultiPerspective: In a Multiple Perspective (Yarat Art Center, Baku, 2022-23), Reflections: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa (The British Museum, London, 2021), Social Works (Frieze London, London,2018), 4th Mardin Biennial (Mardin, 2018), Poetry and Exile (The British Museum, London, 2014), Dream and Reality (Istanbul Modern, 2011), A Dream… But Not Yours (The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, 2010), New Works, New Horizons (Istanbul Modern, 2009), Substance and Light: Ten Sculptors Use Cameras (Munson-Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, 2006), 1st and 4th International Biennale for the Artist’s Book (Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2004, 2010). 

Her works are included in the collections of İstanbul Modern; The British Museum; Arter, İstanbul; Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Artist Books Collection, Egypt; Museum voor Volkenkunde Rotterdam; WienMuseum (in Karamustafa Import-Export Project); King St. Stephen Museum, Deak Collection, Székesfehérar, Hungary; Center for BookArts-New York; Moscow Artist’s Book Archive; Zorlu Collection, as well as private collections across the United States, Turkey, Japan, France, and the United Kingdom.

Duben has taught and lectured at various institutions, including Sabancı University, Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul Technical University, Boğaziçi University, and Roosevelt University in Chicago. She lived and worked in New York from 1991 to 2001 and currently resides in Istanbul, where she continues her artistic and scholarly endeavours.