Ayşegül Kurtel
Artistic Director
Ayşegül Kurtel graduated from American Collegiate Institute and studied at Ege University Faculty of Pharmacy. She completed her BA at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department and continued her MA in the same department. During the 9 years she worked as a lecturer in various departments of Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Fine Arts, she lectured on subjects such as ‘Art History, Renaissance Period’, ‘Iconography’, ‘Contemporary Art’, ‘Visual Perception’, ‘Introduction to Design’, ‘Art Work Analysis’. Simultaneously, she was the art consultant of Mazhar Zorlu Art Gallery for 8 years. She was the manager of Galeri Akademist, which she founded in 2001, for 11 years. She has undertaken the production and presenting of the “Culture and Art” program on a local television channel for 4 years. She is the founding partner of Galeri A Contemporary Art Center, which was established in 2014. She is the founding director of the K2 Contemporary Art Center, which has been operating in Izmir since 2003. K2 provided the city’s first sustainable contemporary art venue, and has organized PORTIZMIR (Izmir International Contemporary Art Triennial), four times since 2007. K2 also operates the K2 Urla Breathing Zone, a completely nature friendly artist residence established on a forest land in Urla. Kurtel, who also has curatorial experiences in Türkiye and abroad, has been a speaker at many national and international conferences. Kurtel was awarded the “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” Order of Arts and Letters by the French State in 2010.