8 نوفمبر 2026
Istanbul Modern opens Manuel Çıtak's photographs on the 5th and closes its Semiha Berksoy retrospective on the 22nd. Frank Bowling makes his Turkish debut at Pera, and Yoko Ono's show spills into the Sakıp Sabancı garden in Emirgan, a ferry ride up a greyer November Bosphorus. Six picks.
Sakıp Sabancı MuseumUntil 27 December
Sixty-seven works across seventy years, and many of them are instructions: the show asks you to carry out tasks rather than just look. It runs from the galleries out into the garden and the Atlı Köşk.
Istanbul ModernOpens 5 November
Black-and-white coastlines, then cityscapes: Istanbul Modern's Photography Gallery covers Manuel Çıtak's whole career, from the 1980s to 2023. An earlier Çıtak show took its title from Lawrence Durrell's word for island obsession, islomania.
Pera MuseumUntil 31 January
Francis Bacon's Portrait of Lisa and a Victor Willing head hang among Bowling's canvases as what curator Alistair Hicks calls "interruptions". Bowling and Willing met at the Royal College of Art; some Bowlings here have never been shown before.
ArterUntil 28 March
Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Nam June Paik share the rooms with Sin Wai Kin's newsreader video: twenty Arter Collection artists treating the end of the world as something already under way. Entry is free on Thursdays.
Borusan ContemporaryUntil 15 August
Memo Akten's Waves 2.0: Earth and works by teamLab fill the Perili Köşk, the Bosphorus mansion whose name means haunted house, under a show framed by the Sphinx's riddle. Open weekends only, with free guided tours.
Elgiz Museum of Contemporary ArtCloses 28 November
Rebecca Horn and Gilbert and George next to Cevdet Erek: the Elgiz Collection puts long-held works beside new acquisitions, in sculpture, painting, video and textile. Entry is free, a short walk from İTÜ-Ayazağa on the M2.
Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Artمجاني
New and long-held works from the Elgiz Collection side by side, from Rebecca Horn and Gilbert & George to Cevdet Erek, in sculpture, painting, video and textile.
Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanatمجاني
A timeline from the 1920s to today of the Koç Group's role in Turkish culture, told through artworks and archives from its institutional collections.
SALT Beyoğluمجاني
A ground-floor installation of posters made for Salt's exhibitions over 15 years, showing shifts in graphic design and individual designers' approaches.
Sakıp Sabancı Museum
A retrospective of 67 works over seventy years, from instruction pieces to film and participatory installations, across the galleries, garden and Atlı Köşk.
Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture
Solo show of Neş'e Erdok's recent figurative works from more than fifty years of practice, her first personal exhibition at the museum.
Arter
First institutional solo show in Turkey of Tayfun Erdoğmuş, whose work uses plants, minerals and handmade papers. Curated by Eda Berkmen.
Pera Museum
Frank Bowling's paintings alongside works by Francis Bacon and Victor Willing, including the Map series and a 2026 work, shown partly for the first time in Istanbul.
Rahmi M. Koç Museum
Koç Group's production history from 1926 to 2026 alongside Turkey's industrialisation, told with archives, photographs and a diorama.
SALT Galataمجاني
Factories by 20th-century Turkish architects, from 1930s state textile mills to private plants, drawn from the Salt Research archives.
SALT Galataمجاني
Works by belit sağ, Dilşad Aladağ, Merve Bedir and others examine workplaces and production, from the worker's body to the factory and global networks.
SALT Beyoğluمجاني
Paintings, prints, jewellery, film and archive material tracing artist and educator Özer Kabaş (1934-1998) and his place in Turkey's cultural history.
Arter
Group show of 24 artists from the Arter Collection on home and homeland, migration, borders and belonging.
Pera Museum
Flawed and overlooked press photographs of early Republican Istanbul, 1920s to early 1950s, from the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation archive.
Istanbul Modern
Solo show in the Photography Gallery covering Manuel Çıtak's whole career from the 1980s to 2023, from coastal black-and-white work to cityscapes.
Meşherمجاني
Travel accounts, paintings and objects tracing journeys to Ottoman lands from the late 15th to early 20th century and the motives behind them.
Borusan Contemporary
Olivo Barbieri's solo show of five photo series using optical interventions and aerial views, from Anatolian sites to Istanbul, waterfalls and the Alps.
Borusan Contemporary
Collection show on being human in a posthuman world, framed by the Sphinx's riddle, with kinetic, data-driven and AI works by teamLab, Memo Akten and others.
رسالة قصيرة بين حين وآخر، كلما افتُتح شيء جديد يستحق وقتك.
