With its exhibition "Solo: Encountering Fahrelnissa Zeid," İGA Istanbul Airport focuses on a 1960 work by Zeid, one of the pioneers of Turkish painting.
İGA Istanbul Airport welcomes Fahrelnissa Zeid (Fahrünnisa Zeyd), a leading exponent of abstract art born in 1901. İGA ART Gallery, the airport's culture and arts platform, which hosts thousands of passengers daily, offers a unique experience centered around a special oil painting by the artist from 1960, with the exhibition "Solo: Encountering Fahrelnissa Zeid."
Opening as part of İGA ART Gallery's Solo series, the exhibition focuses on a single artwork, inviting the viewer to slow down and engage with it directly. This visionary work, created by Zeid in the mid-20th century, presents a multilayered narrative world, enriched by archival footage, biographical documents, and chronological flows.
The exhibition's curator, Prof. Dr. Marcus Graf, emphasized that the aim of the "Solo" series is to establish a deep connection based on a single work by a single artist.
"Zeid's powerful artistic language transcends cultural and geographical boundaries. In this exhibition, we aim to draw the viewer away from visual density and into the depth of meaning."
One of the first women to attend art school in Istanbul, Zeid lived in various cities throughout her artistic career and became an active member of avant-garde artistic circles both in Istanbul and, after the war, in Paris in the 1940s. A member of the New School of Paris movement, her works were exhibited in prominent art institutions in Paris, New York, and London from 1954 onward.
Zeid moved to Amman, Jordan's capital, in the 1970s, where she founded an art school and inspired artists from the region. A major retrospective exhibition at London's Tate Modern in 2017 described her as "one of the greatest women artists of the 20th century."
The exhibition “Solo: Encountering Fahrelnissa Zeid” can be visited at the İGA ART Gallery in the AB Knuckle area of İGA Istanbul Airport International Terminal until August 31.