Ahmet Doğu İpek - Tate St Ives Exhibition

This autumn, Tate St Ives presents new work by Turkish artist Ahmet Dogu Ipek, developed during his 2025 residency at Porthmeor Studios. His practice consists mainly of watercolour, ink and charcoal works on paper, created through a detailed and meditative process. His work often explores the relationship between the built environment and nature, using repetition and pattern to reflect organic forms.

İpek’s process involves meticulous mark-making, layering and repetition, creating compositions that shift between abstraction and representation. His use of monochrome palettes and fine detail brings attention to subtle variations in light, texture and movement. He frequently explores themes of transformation, endurance and the impact of time on materials, drawing inspiration from natural processes and human-made constructions.

This exhibition is part of the fourth collaborative iteration of the Artist Residency and Commissions Programme between Tate St Ives and SAHA, which to date has supported artists including Burçak Bingöl, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, and Cansu Çakar.

Following a studio visit by Tate St Ives Director Anne Barlow in December 2024, İpek was invited to the 2025 residency programme in St Ives to develop new work. His residency and exhibition continue a programme designed to foster artistic exchange and research between St Ives and Turkey.

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Ahmet Doğu İpek is commissioned by Tate St Ives, and curated by Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives with Assistant Curator Dara McElligott. Supported by SAHA.

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Listings information:

From 18 October 2025 in Gallery 10, Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives TR26 1TG

Open daily 10.00–17:20; Winter opening hours (from 1 November) Tuesday to Sunday 10.00–16.20.

For more information and to purchase tickets please visit tate.org.uk/stives call +44 (0)1736 796226, or email visiting.stives@tate.org.uk

About Ahmet Doğu İpek:

Ahmet Doğu İpek (1983, Adıyaman) graduated from the Atatürk University Faculty of Education, Painting Department. He has had solo shows at Arter (Istanbul, 2022), Galeri Nev İstanbul (2019), and Galata Greek School (2017). He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions including at Museum Morsbroich (Leverkusen, 2024), Istanbul Modern (Istanbul, 2024), Zeyrek Çinili Hamam (Istanbul, 2023), Arter (Istanbul, 2019), Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion (Istanbul, 2019), Odunpazari Modern Museum (Eskisehir, 2019), Neues Museum Nürnberg (2018), ArtScience Museum (Singapore, 2015), Evliyagil Museum (Ankara, 2017), Mekan 68 (Vienna, 2016), and Baksi Museum (Bayburt, 2015). In 2018, Ahmet Doğu İpek was a resident artist in Cité des Arts in Paris. His first artist book, consisting of the Days series, was published in 2018. İpek’s works are included in institutional collections such as Arter, Istanbul Modern and Odunpazari Modern Museum. Ahmet Doğu İpek lives and works in Istanbul. About Tate St Ives: Opened in 1993 and expanded in 2017, Tate St Ives explores the area’s unique role in the story of modern art, provides a platform for cutting-edge contemporary artists from around the world, and runs a programme of events and projects developed for and with the town of St Ives. It also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden and is the only Tate gallery to have a dedicated Artist Residency programme. Tate St Ives was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, the UK’s most prestigious museum award. Find out more at tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives

About SAHA:

SAHA Association was founded to support artists, curators, and writers working in visual arts from Türkiye in improving their production and development environments, and to enhance their interactions with international art institutions and networks. As a non-profit organisation that believes in the importance of collective effort to create an independent “field” and to help integrate contemporary art from Türkiye into the international artistic ecosystem, SAHA offers its support through a participatory approach in governance and fundraising with its members, institutional supporters, project partners, and consultants. SAHA collaborates with non-profit organisations to realise exhibitions, publications, projects, and public programmes, acting as a facilitator and providing grants where necessary; establishes partnerships with residency and research programmes to promote cross-cultural dialogue and to foster the professional development of the artists and curators from Türkiye; hosts curators, artists, and art professionals invited from abroad to its Curatorial Programme to endorse research on contemporary visual arts in Türkiye, while expanding the creative environment of artists, curators, and writers invited to the SAHA Studio programme in Istanbul and supporting the independent initiatives across Türkiye to sustain their public programmes. Since 2011, SAHA has supported over 650 different artists, curators, writers, and art initiatives for their projects in over 220 museums, biennials, non-profit art institutions and organisations in 50 countries.