Deniz Kirkali

Deniz Kirkali (b. 1992) is a curator based between Istanbul and London. She is currently the Project Curator at The Showroom in London. She has co-founded topsoil, a transnational curatorial and research collective, and Garp Sessions, a summer residency program in Babakale, Turkey.

She was the curator of Sweet Garden of Vanishing Desires as ArtOn, Istanbul; Reciprocity Muscles at Cala, Berlin; My Dear Friends at Depo, Istanbul; and Make it Hot, Cool it Down, Turn it Over in London; and the assistant curator of the 10th BACA Award Exhibition at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, the Pavilion of Turkey at the 58th Venice Biennale, and BAHAR, the Istanbul offsite project of Sharjah Biennial 13.

Her writings have been published in international magazines and platforms such as AQNB, Flash Art, this is tomorrow, Cogito and Art Unlimited. She is the co-author of Otomy, published in 2022 and winner of Volumes Book Award 2022. She has done residencies with School of Commons (Zurich), Slavs & Tatars (Berlin) and ARCAthens (Athens).

Deniz received her MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths College, University of London and her BS in Media, Culture and Communication from New York University. She is currently a PhD candidate in Advanced Practices at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Deniz Kirkali, Curator and Co-Founder, Garp Sessions, topsoil, Istanbul, Turkey, has been awarded by SAHA, Istanbul.