Öykü Akkoyunlu Davran is a Turkish multidisciplinary artist, painter, illustrator, and designer based in Ankara.
She studied Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey after completing her education in Graphic Design at Ankara Gaziosmanpaşa Anatolian Vocational High School. During her undergraduate studies, she was awarded an Erasmus scholarship and spent a semester at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain.
Her practice moves between fine art and applied visual communication. With twelve years of professional experience in advertising agencies and technology companies as an art director, illustrator, and product designer she developed a concept-driven and narrative-oriented approach that continues to inform her studio work.
Her studio practice is characterised by speed, immediacy, and an emphasis on flow. Working predominantly on paper surfaces, most recently Yupo, she favours materials such as acrylic and ink that preserve chromatic intensity and resist over-refinement. She rarely spends more than several hours on a single piece, preferring the accumulated force of multiple works. Gesture, observational drawing, and chromatic juxtaposition guide her process; colours are placed side by side rather than blended, allowing each to retain its autonomy. Through this method, she explores autonomy, friction, and co-existence as both formal and conceptual concerns. She has participated in national and international exhibitions and collaborative projects.
As of 2025, she is pursuing a part-time MA in User Experience Design at Falmouth University (UK) while continuing her full-time painting practice from her studio in Ankara, developing both independent and commissioned work.
Beyond her studio practice, she keeps illustrated travel journals, explores speculative narratives in science fiction and fantasy literature, and develops her own visual stories through drawing and writing.
Artist Statement
The question is: how do we, as human beings, interact with the world around us? Sometimes we feel at peace with it; sometimes we feel bigger than it; and sometimes it feels bigger than us. Depending on our perspective, the world can seem whimsical and absurd. What does it mean to be human? What is the meaning of our existence? The journey continues as we explore and consider possible answers to these questions. Sometimes we resist the difficulties of the journey with all our might; sometimes we cannot overcome them and can only let ourselves float on the surface of the sea of life. And sometimes we manage life and the journey without taking them too seriously. I can say that these themes have been central to my artwork for years.
