ATIF AKIN

Atıf Akın, was born 1976 in Bandırma and he currently lives and works in New York. Atıf Akın's work is about technoscientific criticism in the context of contemporary art, science, and politics. Integrating technology as both subject and means of expression, Akın explores issues that are considered sensitive in the public discourse, unlocking them from the rigid political categories in which they reside.

Akın studied science and design at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, and worked in İstanbul as an artist and educator before moving to New York in 2011. In 2009, his work was listed in the Younger Than Jesus art directory of the New Museum, published by Phaidon. That same year, Akın co-curated a seminal media art exhibition, Uncharted: User Frames in Media Arts in İstanbul, and edited an accompanying book. Akın was the recipient of the 2015 apexart Franchise Program award in New York, and the organizer of the zine project and exhibition, Apricots from Damascus, on behalf of apexart, and co-produced and hosted by SALT in İstanbul. In 2016, he took part in the public programming of Olafur Eliasson’s Greenlight Project, hosted by TBA 21 in Vienna. With the same institution, he embarked on an expedition to research nuclear test sites in French Polynesia. As part of his long-term research-driven art project on nuclear mobility and oceanography, Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa was on display at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Singapore, Le Fresnoy Museum in France, and The Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm in Sweden, and SUNY Binghamton galleries in New York. His ongoing long-term research-driven art project on nuclear mobility, Mutant Space was produced in different contexts and at various locations across the world. His latest work Mutant Time, produced at SAHA Studio was exhibited at the Müze Gazhane as part of the 17th Istanbul Biennial. Akın continues to teach as an Associate Professor of Art & Design at Rutgers University and serve as an advisor to the Center for Cultural Analysis and Critical AI Initiative of the same university in New York, where he lives since 2011.

His selected solo exhibitions include Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa, BASE Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey (2019); Apricots from Damascus Room, University of Texas at Dallas, Texas, USA (2020); Mutant Space, SUNY Binghamton, New York, USA (2020). His recent selected group exhibitions include Apricots from Damascus, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turkey (2015); Unspoken Dialogues, Galeria Millenium BCP, Lisbon, Portugal (2016); 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2016); Tidalectics, TBA 21, Vienna, Austria (2017); The Oceanic, Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore (2017) and Oceans, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France (2018). Akın also worked as the co-curator of Apricots from Damascus, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turkey (2015).