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Bedri Baykam

BEDRİ BAYKAM

Ankara-Turkey, 1957

Bedri Baykam is one of Turkey’s internationally most well-known artists and intellectuals. He has had international exhibitions since the age of six until today in Bern, Geneva, New York, Washington, Paris, London, Rome, Munich, Frankfurt, Stockholm, San Francisco, Monaco, Cannes, Berlin to name a few.

He studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris from 1975 to 1980 and got MBA degree. During this time, he also studied drama in L'Actorat, Paris. He lived in California during the years 1980-1987, studied painting and filmmaking at the California College of Arts and Crafts, (CCAC) in Oakland. He has had several shows in New York, California and Paris. He returned to Turkey in 1987 and has been living in Istanbul since.

He has had 141 one-man-shows in various countries in addition to participating to numerous group shows. His works have been shown in museums such as Berlin Akademie der Künste, Barcelona Picasso Museum, Paris Roland-Garros Museum, Pinacothèque de Paris, Stedelijk Schiedam Museum in Holland, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Osthaus Museum Hagen, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, Bahrain National Museum and in Biennales such as Cairo, Venice, İstanbul and Buenos Aires, the galleries such as Daniel Templon, Stephen Wirtz, Yahşi Baraz, The Proposition, E.M. Donahue, Lavignes-Bastille, Opera Gallery.  Baykam is one of the pioneers of New-Expressionism in the early 80s and of multi-media, political art. He has directed several 16 mm films and videos and has acted in several parts in feature films. He is the author of 30 published books, two feature film scripts and there are 51 catalogs and 8 books about his works.

He is the co-founder and actual President of Uluslararası Plastik Sanatlar Derneği (UPSD-Turkish Plastic Arts Association which is a member of International Association of Art (IAA) –official partner of UNESCO). Baykam was also elected as the World President of the International Association of Art at 18th General Assembly in Plzen in 2015. In 2011, Baykam’s proposal for starting a World Art Day at the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci, during the 17th General Assembly of IAA World in Guadalajara/Mexico, was accepted unanimously by the participant countries.  Since then every year a growing number of artists associations in several countries are celebrating “World Art Day”, with several art forms harmoniously blending together.

Also Baykam has been a columnist for several Turkish publications such as Tempo, Siyah-Beyaz, Aydınlık, Akşam and OdaTv among others. He currently writes in Cumhuriyet. He is one of the central characters of the artistic and political milieu in Turkey. He was a Party Assembly Member of CHP, the Turkish social democrats, in the second half of the 90’s and a Presidential candidate for the same Party in 2003.

The artist is the founder of Piramid Publishing (1998) and Piramid Sanat (2006-art center) in Taksim Square in Istanbul, one of the most active and independent spots in Turkish contemporary art.