ABOUT

Volkan Diyaroglu was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1982. He studied at the Fine Arts Faculty of Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul and Facultad de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia, Spain. He participated in the VIII Istanbul Biennale in collaboration with Galeri Binyil and presented a parallel project of the biennale, in 2003. In 2004 Volkan exhibited in Sala Naranja in Valencia. At that time Sala Naranja was one of the most important alternative exhibition spaces of Spain. In 2005, when he was 23 years old, Volkan’s paintings were exhibited in the VI Observatori festival in the Principe Felipe Museum in Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias of Valencia, together with artists like Gary Hill, Gordon Matta-Clark, Paul McCarthy, Dennis Oppenheim, and others. In 2006 he was invited to Paris, France, to prepare an exhibition in Abbaye de Maubuisson. In 2007 he realized the exhibition called “Decalages”, which was part of the Tram Project which included the most important museums of Paris – Ile de France. The same year Volkan’s biggest exhibition was set up by Sala Naranja in Forja Arte Contemporaneo in Valencia. Shortly after that, he was awarded the Cite International des Arts Scholarship in Paris, France. In 2008 he won one of the most important prizes of Spain, XXXV Bancaja Painting, Sculpture and Digital Art Prize. Diyaroglu was exhibited in IVAM Museum as a winner of the Bancaja Prize in Spain. He had been elected three times as one of the top ten artists of Saatchi Gallery among 100 000 artists. His work was presented at the Saatchi Gallery in Dubai, Emirates in 2009. The same year Volkan represented Turkey at an event called Turkish Culture Season in France. In 2011, at the age of only 29, he was included in Sotheby’s Contemporary Turkish Art Auction in London, UK. In 2013, he was included in IVAM Museum’s “Sustratos” exhibition and in Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art’s two exhibitions with artists like Doug Aitken, David LaChapelle, Gilbert & George etc. Between 2014 – 2017 he exhibited his works in Spain, Singapore, Belgium, United States, Turkey, Australia, Chile, Italy, and Morocco.  His shows had been held in seven museums and had been presented at 23 individual exhibitions in 16 different countries.

Volkan’s paintings are in many private, gallery, foundation, and corporate collections.

Even though the centre of his artistic activity is painting, his work includes a variety of sculptures, drawings, collages, and digital and video art.

He is also the frontman of an art-rock band called Ulan, which has also released three LPs and two Eps since 2015 until now.