Voices in Silence
Silence
2025 · Bronze
290 × 118 × 122 cm
The title work gives the exhibition its central image: a monumental human presence through which silence becomes tangible.
Studio 54 Fine Art · Artist focus
Ahmet
Güneştekin
Memory takes form.
Painting, sculpture and installation shaped by mythology, cultural memory and the stories that survive.
Born in Batman, Türkiye, in 1966. Based in Istanbul. An international practice spanning painting, bronze, stone, installation, textiles and moving image.
Batman → Istanbul → VeniceBiography
An art of
remembering.
Ahmet Güneştekin is a Kurdish-Turkish contemporary artist whose work brings inherited stories into dialogue with the present. Raised in Batman, he encountered the oral storytelling and song of the dengbêj tradition as a child. Repetition, myth and the transmission of memory remain central to his visual language.
After moving to Istanbul in 1997, he developed a practice informed by field research, material experimentation and the relationship between history and lived experience. His early solo exhibition The Colours After Darkness took place in 2003; he established the Güneştekin Art Centre in Beyoğlu in 2010.
Across intensely worked paintings, sculptural objects and large installations, he asks how cultures remember—and whose experiences are left outside official accounts. His work has moved from optical structures and mythic imagery toward ambitious environments involving found objects, stone, metal and video.
International milestones include exhibitions in Venice, New York, Monaco, Berlin, Vienna, Baku and Rome. His 2025 Rome exhibition Never There and 2026 Venice presentation Silence place questions of absence and remembrance within historic cultural settings.
Read the official artist biography ↗Venice · 2026 exhibition
SILENCE
Sessizlik / Silenzio
A historic Venetian palazzo becomes a place for contemporary memory.
Curated by Sergio Risaliti, Silence brings together eleven large-scale bronze sculptures and eleven mixed-media works across Palazzo Gradenigo’s restored spaces. Supported by Yıldız Holding, the exhibition inaugurates a new chapter for the building and the Güneştekin Foundation’s presence in Italy.
The exhibition frames silence as an active form of remembrance. Figures with gas masks, skull and fish forms, and works built around doors connect human vulnerability with inherited narratives. The palazzo’s architecture becomes part of that encounter, bringing historical space and contemporary material into dialogue.
Official exhibition & visitor information ↗Selected works from Silence
Presence.
Threshold. Time.
Six works documented in the artist’s official exhibition archive. This selection illustrates the exhibition; contact Studio 54 Fine Art separately about works available for acquisition.
Voices in Silence
Witness of Time
2025 · Bronze
115 × 163 × 86 cm
A work from the same bronze series, connecting the human figure with the exhibition’s concerns of time and testimony.
SOLD
Silence
Not available for purchase.
The Gate of the New Era of the Seven
2026 · Mixed media
190 × 210 × 20 cm
An architectural threshold becomes a layered object, opening a dialogue between inherited forms and contemporary experience.
Silence exhibition
The Tale of Beautiful Horses
2026 · Mixed media
195 × 275 × 30 cm
Mythological storytelling moves beyond a flat surface, bringing image, material and physical depth into conversation.
Silence exhibition
The Judges of Troy
2026 · Mixed media
211 × 222 × 15 cm
Its title draws the viewer toward the mythic world of Troy, one of the cultural narratives invoked by the exhibition.
Voices in Silence
Silent Elegance
2025 · Bronze
210 × 80 × 90 cm
A further encounter with the bronze figure, extending the exhibition’s exploration of bodily presence and stillness.
Artwork titles, dates, media and dimensions follow the artist’s official exhibition record. Images © Ahmet Güneştekin / credited rights holders; reproduced from the official artist archive.
Understanding the practice
Beyond a single medium.
Painting & optical space
Layered lines, colour gradients and geometric structures give his painting a physical, almost sculptural intensity. Mythological images intersect with an interest in perception and optical illusion.
Explore the painting archive ↗Installation & absence
In Never There, monumental installation and objects create an encounter with what has disappeared. The Rome presentation places these works in dialogue with a museum collection, asking how testimony can interrupt established histories.
Explore Never There ↗Myth & cultural memory
From solar forms to ancient stories, Güneştekin treats myth as an evolving visual language. His exhibition history connects this inquiry across cultures, from Million Stone in Venice to The Alphabet of Memory in Baku.
Explore the exhibition archive ↗Selected international exhibitions
A practice
across borders.
- 2026
Silence
Palazzo Gradenigo · Venice, Italy
6 May–1 November · Curated by Sergio Risaliti- 2026
Witnesses of Time
21 Art Gallery · Rome, Italy
30 April–15 September · Curated by Sergio Risaliti- 2025
Never There / Yoktunuz
National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art · Rome, Italy
1 July–28 September · Curated by Sergio Risaliti and Paola Marino- 2025
The Lost Alphabet
Artİstanbul Feshane · Istanbul, Türkiye
Curated by Christoph Tannert- 2022–23
Infidel Quarter
Kültürpark · Izmir, Türkiye
Curated by Şener Özmen- 2021
Memory Chamber
Keçi Burcu · Diyarbakır, Türkiye
Presented by Pilevneli- 2019
The Universe of Myths
Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien · Vienna, Austria
Curated by Ulrich Ptak- 2019–21
The Alphabet of Memory
Heydar Aliyev Center · Baku, Azerbaijan
Curated by Emin Mammadov- 2018–19
Reflection and Resumption
Pécs, Hungary
Vasarely Museum, Janus Pannonius Museum and Zsolnay Museum- 2017
Sun Road
Galerie Michael Schultz · Berlin, Germany
A presentation spanning a decade of work- 2015
Million Stone
Santa Maria della Pietà · Venice, Italy
Curated by Matthew Drutt- 2014
The Heir to the Solar Disk
Marlborough Monaco · Monaco
Curated by Stéphanie Pioda- 2013–14
Recent Paintings
Marlborough Gallery · New York, United States
Curated by Donald Kuspit- 2013
Momentum of Memory
Arsenale · Venice, Italy
Curated by Beral Madra
The Güneştekin Foundation
Creating space
for the next generation.
Founded in Istanbul in 2022, the Ahmet Güneştekin Foundation for Culture, Arts and Education supports exhibitions, scholarships, education and interdisciplinary exchange. Its mission extends beyond presenting one artist’s work to creating opportunities for emerging cultural producers.
Palazzo Gradenigo, acquired by the artist in 2024, is the foundation’s Italian base. The foundation describes plans for a fuller international programme from 2027, with an emphasis on young and disadvantaged cultural producers.
Discover the foundation ↗Enquiries · Studio 54 Fine Art
Explore the art
of Ahmet Güneştekin.
Speak to the gallery about artwork sourcing, current availability, provenance and acquisition enquiries.
Enquire about Ahmet Güneştekinsales@studio54art.comCall or WhatsApp: +357 99 853220 · WhatsApp ↗Visit the official artist website ↗
Research sources & image credits
Researched 26 October 2026 using the artist’s official biography, artwork and exhibition archives, the Güneştekin Foundation and the exhibition sponsor’s announcement. Interpretive artwork descriptions are by Studio 54 Fine Art. Exhibition images are documentation and do not establish sale availability.