Yekta Çetinkaya is an emerging, immigrant visual artist from Istanbul, Turkey, living and working in Ottawa. Çetinkaya's practice encompasses painting, sculpture, and installation.

Weaving together languages of ancestral technology, scientific manuscripts, Anatolian visual culture, and narratives related to navigation, migration, and journeying, Çetinkaya's works are introductions to other stories, which exist in past, present, and future, traversing within and between cultures, communities, and histories.

His research-based art practice initiates negotiations between historical narratives of multiple perspectives, destabilizing the entrenched colonial history of discovery and progress, and generating new knowledge for the future.

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Group Exhibitions
2025 Newcomer, G101, Ottawa, ON
2023 XL: 40th Anniversary Exhibition, AXENÉO7, Gatineau, QC
2022 LUCK!, Ottawa Arts Council, Ottawa ON
2022 Cross-Paths, LaLande + Doyle Exhibition Space, Shenkman Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON
2022 Constellate, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
2022 Kosmic, Carleton Architects Association of Ontario, SAW Club, Ottawa, ON
2022 Astro, SAW Club, Ottawa, ON
2020 Art History: Is It Relevant ?, Gallery 115, Ottawa, ON

Artist Residencies
2023 Artengine, Artist in Residence: Art & Science Fiction, Ottawa,ON

Public Art
2022 The Welcome Back Project by Christos Pantieras, community-engaged temporary public artwork project, various locations across the city of Ottawa, ON, Canada
2021 Wish Tree, mural in collaboration with artist Ferhat Demirel, 85 University Private, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Grants and Awards
2023 Seed Grant, City of Ottawa
2022 Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG)'s Graduating Student Award of Excellence
2022 Articipate Project Grant, Arts Network Ottawa and the City of Ottawa
2021 Youth in Culture Pilot Program Grant, City of Ottawa

Curatorial Experience
2023 Jinx!, Co-curator with Nosy Mag, Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON
2022 Cross Paths, Co-curator, LaLande + Doyle Exhibition Space, Shenkman Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON

Press
2020 Yekta Cetinkaya, Peintre aux influences internationales, by Thelma Grundisch, La Rotonde

Education
2017-2022 Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) , University of Ottawa
2012-2017 Le Lycée Sainte Pulchérie, Istanbul, Turkey

Related Professional Experience
2022- Writer and Contributor, Nosy Mag
2022- Marketing and Communications Officer, Department of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa
2022- Store Manager, Sherry Welden Art Store, Ottawa
2020-2022 Administrative Assistant and Marketing Content Creator, Department of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa