Derya Akay

​

Derya Akay (b. 1988) is an artist living in Frankfurt, Germany. 

 

Akay is an interdisciplinary artist who poetically interprets cooking as a metaphor. They explore the tension between preservation and decay, control and chance, trial and error. Their artistic strategies embrace the realities of time and transformation using organic materials. Dumpster diving, recalling dreams, hacking and pirating, alley walks and studying weeds also contribute to her process-based practice.

 

In 2023, Derya was the Stonecroft Artist-in-Residence at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston. Their recent exhibitions include Flowers from a Story, Unit 17, 2024; The Willful Plot, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2023; What Water Knows, the Land Remembers, Toronto Biennial of Art, 2022; Meydan, Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver; Contact Traces, Wattis Institute at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, both 2021; The Lulennial II: A Low-Hanging Fruit, Lulu, Mexico City, 2018; HERE, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, 2017; Ambivalent Pleasures, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2016. They received a BFA from Emily Carr University in 2010 and is currently a guest student at Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.

 

​

Exhibitions

17:1 (2017)

Green Grocer (2018)

Butter and Breads (2018)

SUPER, NATURAL (2019)

Fruit and Flower (2020)

The Neighbour's Plate (2020)

Flowers from a Story (2024)

​

Writing & Press

Akimbo

C Magazine

Frieze

Art Review

Kaleidoscope

​

Publications

a flower as a poem (2016)

Ghost Spring (2018)

Mantı, Börek, Baklava (2019)

​

CV