Graduated from the sculpture department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2000, Evrim Kavcar (b.1976) received her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute (2003) on a Fulbright scholarship, and PhD from MSU (2011). She studied Foto-Film and animation at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2010-2011). Selected exhibitions include: Rounded By Sleep, ARTER (2022); I Haven’t Taken an Oath, Barın Han (2022); 8. International Sinop Biennial (2022); Shifting Patterns, Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin (2021); The Fine Knife We Used To Pare Away The Rough Day, Kasa Gallery, İstanbul (2020); Dictionary of Sensitive Sounds, PASAJ, İstanbul (2019); Hidden in Loss, Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Istanbul (2016); SiS Collective, Apartment Project, Berlin (2016); D as In Void, Gallery Zilberman, İstanbul (2015); 3rd Mardin Biennial, Mythologies, Mardin (2015); Tooth, PiST /// Interdisciplinary Project Space (2012). She was the recipient of an Istanbul – Berlin stipendium at nGbk Berlin for six months in 2018. Her artistic research called Records of Breath has inspired an extensive multidisciplinary research that is a collaboration between professionals from computer engineering (A.I), sound studies, psychiatry and digital humanities.
Since 2018 Kavcar has been working as a duo with Elif Öner. She is head of the Cartoon and Animation Department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and co-founder of the artist duo Sensitive Sounds with Elif Öner.
DETAYLI / DETAILED
Evrim Kavcar, disiplinlerarası bir sanatçı ve eğitimcidir. Yüksek lisansını San Francisco Art
Institute’ta, sanatta yeterlilik çalışmasını ise MSGSÜ Heykel Bölümü’nde tamamlamıştır.
Nesin Sanat Köyü ve Mardin Artuklu Üniversitesi GSF’nin kurucu kadrosunda yer almıştır.
Kavcar’ın bireysel ve ortak çalışmaları, 28. İstanbul Film Festivali, PiST Disiplinlerarası Proje
Alanı, ARTER, 17. İstanbul Bienali, Sinopale 8, Borusan Contemporary, Eldem Sanat Alanı,
PASAJ Bağımsız Sanat Alanı, KASA Galeri, Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Barın Han, 3. Mardin
Bienali, nGbK, Galerie Nord, Tayvan Tıpta İnsan Bilimleri Müzesi gibi uluslararası
mekanlarda sergilenmiştir. Berlin Senatosu Misafir Sanatçı Programı ve SAHA Studio gibi
atölye programlarına katılmıştır.
Kavcar, sanatsal pratiğinde hayvanlar, bitkiler ve türlü oluşlarla yaşanan kırılgan ve tuhaf
karşılaşma anlarına odaklanır. Olasılıklar, arzular ve politikaların dayattığı sınırlar arasındaki
gerilimi, çeşitli malzeme ve teknikler kullanarak sanatsal üretime ve araştırmaya dönüştürür.
2018 yılından bu yana, Elif Öner ile birlikte Hassas Sesler adlı sanatçı ikilisi olarak sesin
öznel, sosyal ve kültürel boyutlarını inceleyen projeler geliştirmektedir. Şu an MSGSÜ Çizgi
Film ve Animasyon Bölümü’nde bölüm başkanlığı rolünü üstlenmektedir.
Evrim Kavcar is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. She completed her MFA at the San
Francisco Art Institute and her proficiency in sculpture at the Sculpture Department of
MSGSÜ. Kavcar is one of the founding members of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mardin Artuklu
University and the Nesin Art Village. Her individual and collaborative works have been
exhibited internationally, including at the 28th Istanbul Film Festival, PiST, ARTER, 17th
Istanbul Biennial, Sinopale 8, Borusan Contemporary, PASAJ, KASA Gallery, the 3rd Mardin
Biennial, nGbK, Galerie Nord, and the Taiwan Medical Humanities Museum.She has also
participated in programs such as the Berlin Senate Artist-in-Residence Program and SAHA
Studio.
Kavcar focuses on fragile and peculiar moments of encounter with animals, plants, and
various entities in her artistic practice. Since 2018, she has been collaborating with Elif Öner
as the artist duo Sensitive Sounds, exploring the personal, social, and cultural dimensions of
sound. Presently, she has a role as the head of the Cartoon and Animation Department at
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
2
below is a collaboration with ai:
Evrim Kavcar is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Istanbul. She completed her graduate studies at the San Francisco Art Institute and received her proficiency in art from the Sculpture Department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She is a faculty member at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Cartoon and Animation.
Her artistic practice focuses on the shifting relations between humans and non-human entities; particularly animals, plants, and objects. Through drawing, animation, sound, and performative gestures, she investigates how encounters generate tension, proximity, and unexpected forms of communication. Rather than constructing linear narratives, her works often unfold as layered processes of observation, searching, and transformation.
Kavcar has exhibited her work in international exhibitions, biennials, and independent art spaces. Alongside her individual practice, she has been part of a duo that explores sound, perception, and collective listening.
Her work is positioned at the intersection of artistic research and visual experimentation, where fragile forms of attention, movement, and perception become central tools for thinking.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 “Hop One Two”, Solo exhibition, DEPO, Istanbul
2026 Four Legged City // Berze Gallery, Istanbul
2025 Resident Soils, Sakin Topraklar, Eldem Sanat Alanı, Eskişehir
2023 “From Off My Countanance These Glassy Tears”, Perasma, Istanbul
2022 17th ISTANBUL BIENNIAL // “Dictionary of Sensitive Sounds”, with Elif Öner, İstanbul 2022 ARTER // “Rounded By Sleep”, İstanbul
2022 Sympathetic System // Karşı Sanat, Istanbul
2022 Barın Han // “I Haven’t Taken an Oath”, Çemberlitaş, İstanbul
2022 Sinopale, 8. International Sinop Biennial2021 Grand Re Union Online Video Piece // http://www.grandreunion.net/records-of-breath/
2021 Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten // “Shifting Patterns”, Berlin
2020 Kasa Galeri // The Fine Knife We Used To Pare Away the Rough Day, İstanbul, Karaköy 2019 nGbK // In The Blink Of A Bird, collective Project with SiS collective, Berlin
2019 After the Butcher // The Yellow Section, group exhibition, Berlin
2019 Feminist Media Studio // On Performing Multiples, Concordia University, Canada
2018 Rem Artspace // Temas – Contact, group exhibition, self curated, IST
2018 ZK/U // Lecture Performance: “Landwehr Canal Won’t Sound”, Berlin
2018 Public space, Portİzmir4 // Evolve, İzmir
2017 Daire Gallery // Floating Tactics After a Sunken Island, group exhibition, IST
2017 Arte Sanat // Now You Are Here, ANKARA
in collaboration (since 2012) with Istanbul University Alfred Heillbronn Botanical Garden
2016 Apartment Project Berlin, artist residency / project MIST and exhibition 2016 Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları // Hidden in Loss, İstanbul
2016 “fragMENtaTION” project, Sanat Dünyamız magazine, Yapı Kredi Publications curated by Necmi Sönmez
2016 Space Debris// Stage / Istanbul
2015 Galeri Zilberman Project Space // D as in Void, solo exhibition
2015 Public Space & Atamyan Konağı // “Mythologies” / 3.Mardin Biennial, Mardin
2014 “The wind”, Public Installation // International Sinop Biennial Sinopale 5, Clusters and Crystals: Observing at Point Zero, Sinop
2014 Wschodnia Gallery // What does the void look like in Lodz? / Lodz, Poland
2012 INSERT Project Space // Gregor, Solo Exhibition / Borusan Music House
2012 Museum of Medical Humanities // The Gross Anatomy Course II: Dying Eyes, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 PiST /// Interdisciplinary Project Space / Tooth, Solo Exhibition, Pangaltı, İstanbul 2009 Hafriyat Karaköy// Unfair Provocation, Karaköy, İstanbul
SELECTED WORKSHOPS
2023 Together at the Threshold: Artists & Curators, Sensitive Sounds Workshop, Nesin Art Village
2021 “Muddy Hands”, Sculpture workshop, The International Association of Child Rights Envoys (ICHILD) /
2023 The Animate Earth, stop motion animation workshop, Nesin Art Village
2023 “Together”, Zine Workshop, Art Istanbul Feshane, “Starting from the Middle”, Istanbul
2020 Stop Motion Animation Workshop, ArtSeed, San Francisco
2017 Timeless, collaborative workshop with Raziye Kubat and Almila Akdağ Salah, Nesin Art Village, İzmir 2015 Forming & transfroming, sculpture workshop, Nesin Math Village, İzmir
2013 Out of Purpose, Public Space Intervention Workshop, Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center, İstanbul
2012 Em-NET primary school, “a collective ship”, workshop with 9-12 years old children, Kampala, Uganda
education
2008 – 2011
PhD in Practice, Sculpture Department, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Thesis: Examining the Process of Transforming Daily Situations into Works of Art
2010 – 2011
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien / Erasmus Exchange Program Harun Farocki FotoFilm Class
2001 – 2003
MFA in Sculpture (with an emphasis on Public Space) San Francisco Art Institute, CA
1996 – 2000
BA in Sculpture, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University
1994 – 1996
Istanbul University Faculty of Forestry, Department of Landscape Architecture
’94 Üsküdar American Academy
academic work
2024 Assistant Professor, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Cartoon and Animation
2013 – 2023 Assistant Professor, Mardin Artuklu University Faculty of Fine Arts / Department of Sculpture
2006 – 2013 Assistant Proffessor, Beykent University Faculty of Fine Arts /
Department of Graphic Design 2006 – 2011 Lecturer / Beykent University Faculty of Fine Arts / Department of Graphic Design
2001 – 2003 Teaching Assistant / San Francisco Art Institute
selected residencies & awards
2023 // SAHA Studio 6th Term Artist in Residence
2021 // SAHA Sustainability Fund: Covid-19 / support fort he publication of A Dictionary of Sensitive Sounds with Elif Öner
2020 // Daire Sanat Open Studio Artist Programme with Elif Öner
2018 // Artist-in-Residence Stipend Istanbul-Berlin / The Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (nGbK) and Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (ZK/U), Berlin
2015 // Docentship from Turkish Council of Higher Education
2009 – 2011 // Borusan Art Center Residency
2008 // Sarıkamış Commemoration Sites Urban Design Competition / Awarded 2nd Prize, Ministry of Culture and Tourism
2001 // Fulbright Scholarship for MFA studies
2000 // Sabancı Award ( for Mimar Sinan University Sculpture Department’s Top Graduate)
1987 – 1994 // Üsküdar American Academy / Academic Success Award
WORKS in COLLECTIONS
In BORUSAN CONTEMPORARY collection:
/ ”Esteban,” installation consisting of an animation, a bronz sculpture and text // “protect your own World,” series of five drawings
in YKY (Yapı Kredi Publications) collection:
as part of its Fragmentation Series / signed edition of “Cuts Along the Wall” In Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center’s collection:
/ “trimmed-for-documental purposes”, colored wood sculpture
SELECTED ARTICLES
Kavcar Evrim, Kaya Heysem, Salah Albert Ali, Ocak Meral, Akdağ Salah Alkim Almila (2019). Hidden in a breath: Tracing the Breathing Patterns of Survivors of Traumatic Events. DH2019 Utrecht University Digital Humanities Conference Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
Heysem Kaya, Dmitrii Fedotov, Denis Dresvyanskiy, Metehan Doyran, Danila Mamontov, Maxim Markitantov, Alkim Almila Akdag Salah, Evrim Kavcar, Alexey Karpov, Albert Ali Salah: Predicting Depression and Emotions in the Cross-roads of Cultures, Para-linguistics, and Non- linguistics. AVEC@MM 2019: 27-35
Whose City Is That? Culture, Design, Spectacle and Capital in Istanbul / Part IV: The City of Guerillas, Name of the Article: Disrupting the Amnesia: Metaphoric Artistic Interventions in Istanbul (2014)., KAVCAR EVRİM ÖZLEM, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Editör:Dilek Özhan Koçak, Orhan Kemal Koçak, Number of Pages 325, ISBN:ISBN (10): 1-4438-6043-3, ISBN
(13): 978-1-4438-6043-7, English (Scientific Book), (No: 1448226)
KAVCAR EVRİM (2015). FOURTH PLINTH PROGRAM: CONTEMPORARY MONUMENTS OF THE EMPTY PLINTH Route Educational and Social Science Journal, 2(5), 755-755., Doi: 10.17121/ressjournal.281 (Publication No: 1448030)
KAVCAR EVRİM (2015). The Meaning of Monuments in the Context of a Prideless Recent History Çukurova University 1.International Artistic Research Symposium, 181-189. (Full text proceeding)