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Sibel Açıkalın AkgünArtist — Istanbul

Sculpture · Painting · Prints

Too Much
Emotion

2023 – 2026

A series shaped around breaking apart and rebuilding — inward-looking sculptures and paintings that carry impressions of the outside world.

View the work → Read the statement
Drowning, Splitting, Multiplying — three cream cast-polyester figures by Sibel Açıkalın Akgün, photographed outdoors
Drowning, Splitting, Multiplying — 2025, cast polyester

Artist statement

“Too Much Emotion is shaped around my experience of breaking apart and rebuilding.”

The transition between figurative and abstract forms reveals the relationship I create between my inner world and the outside world. My sculpture and painting practices develop simultaneously — for me, making is not only a form of expression, but also a way of returning to the beginning and rebuilding myself again and again.

In this series, my sculptures embody an inward-looking, concentrated, and self-contained presence, while my paintings bring impressions of the outside world to the surface through movement and the passage of time. My relationship with nature and my shifting emotional states emerge as fluidity and movement across the surface.

This flow unfolds like the movement of fleeting emotions over time, leaving traces behind and carrying the memory of places through lived experiences. Too Much Emotion emerges from within this ongoing process and carries the courage to meet the viewer.

Too Much Emotion · 2023–2026

Sculpture

Cast polyester, 2025. Click a work to view it from every angle.

Drowning, Splitting, Multiplying — three identical rounded cream figures bowing forward in a row, cast polyester sculpture

Too Much Emotion

Drowning, Splitting, Multiplying

Year
2025
Material
Cast polyester
Size
50 × 21 × 18 cm
Hiding — a curled-up cream figure tucking its head behind its arm, cast polyester sculpture

Too Much Emotion

Hiding

Year
2025
Material
Cast polyester
Size
32 × 16 × 15 cm
Flow — an elongated reclining cream form with soft undulating waves, cast polyester sculpture

Too Much Emotion

Flow

Year
2025
Material
Cast polyester
Size
62 × 14 × 15 cm
Leave Me Alone — two rounded cream heads with small ears facing one another, cast polyester sculpture

Too Much Emotion

Leave Me Alone

Year
2025
Material
Cast polyester
Size
19 × 9 × 15 cm

Too Much Emotion · 2023–2026

Painting

Impressions of the outside world — nature, movement and the passage of time in acrylic on canvas.

Poppy Garden — acrylic painting of coral poppies among layered green leaves against a dark sky, with a small white face peeking out

Poppy Garden

2026 · Acrylic on canvas · 70 × 70 cm

Dark Forest — acrylic painting of tree trunks and drifting leaf shapes in greens, oranges and pinks under a blue hill

Dark Forest

2025 · Acrylic on canvas · 80 × 50 cm

Plomari Attack — acrylic painting of a hillside of rounded green trees and red rooftops under a blue sky with soft pink clouds

Plomari Attack

2025 · Acrylic on canvas · 120 × 60 cm

Green Tomatoes & Basil — fine art print of stylised plants with dark leaves against a blue sky with clouds

Prints

Green Tomatoes & Basil

A fine art print in a limited edition — each one signed and numbered by the artist.

Fine art print Edition of 50 Signed & numbered

Applied practice

Collaborations

Alongside her artistic practice, Sibel has collaborated with agencies, brands, and publishers on advertising, illustration, children's books, product and brand communication projects.

Her illustrated books have been published in Turkey, Australia, and South Korea.

Illustration portfolio on Behance ↗

Selected publications

  • 2026Kalplere Dokunan Çocuklar (Korean edition) — BKbooks, South Korea
  • 2024Good Morning Amelia Island — Hastings Park Press, Australia
  • 2024Kalplere Dokunan Çocuklar — Nobel Çocuk, Ankara, Turkey
  • 2023İstanbul'da Çocukluk — IPA İstanbul Dergisi No. 8, Istanbul Planning Agency, Turkey
  • 2022Pamuk Kalpli Prens ve Yedi Cüceler — Can Yayınları, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2020Kısa Klasikler: Uysal Kız — Can Yayınları, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2019Çocuktan Al Bilgiyi series, character design — Timaş Yayınları, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2018We Miss Wikipedia!, poster illustration — Wikimedia Foundation, USA
  • 2017Pelin ve Çınar Gezi Rehberi series — ABM Yayınları, Istanbul, Turkey

About

Sibel Açıkalın Akgün (b. 1983, Istanbul, Turkey) is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, painting, illustration, and print.

She received her BFA in Sculpture from Anadolu University, Faculty of Fine Arts, and completed her MFA in Sculpture at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She has participated in exhibitions, competitions, and public art projects, while continuing to work across both fine art and illustration.

She lives and works in Istanbul.

  • MFA in SculptureMimar Sinan Fine Arts University
  • BFA in SculptureAnadolu University, Faculty of Fine Arts
Sibel Açıkalın Akgün working on a sculpture mould outdoors in her studio
In the studio, Istanbul

Exhibitions

  • 2023Smiley — Canlandıranlar International Film Festival, Institut Français, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2022Arzum 55. Yıl İllüstrasyon Sergisi — Galataport, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2022Türkiye'nin Otomobilleri 1972 Resim Sergisi — Key Museum, İzmir, Turkey
  • 201837. Grafik Tasarım Sergisi (GMK) — Illustration Achievement Award, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2016Made Art Artist Thessaloniki Art Festival — Thessaloniki, Greece
  • 201271. Devlet Resim Heykel Sergisi — Honourable Mention, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2012Modern Kaygılar, project exhibition — Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2010Genç Heykel Sergisi — Arte İstanbul Sanat Merkezi, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2008Outdoor Sculpture Project — Anadolu University, Yunus Emre Campus, Eskişehir, Turkey
  • 200717. TÜYAP İstanbul Sanat Fuarı — Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2006Rotary 9. Altın Testi Seramik Sergisi — Honourable Mention, İzmir, Turkey

Contact

Say hello.

s_acikalin@hotmail.com
Instagram ↗ Behance ↗ LinkedIn ↗