Mi Art Gallery Gallery in Istanbul

Editorial Profile

Mi Art Gallery is a commercial gallery operating across two locations — its flagship space in Mayfair, London, and an Istanbul outpost that opened in Kadıköy in May 2025, marking a significant step in the gallery's international expansion. Founded by F. Irem Deniz, the gallery has built its identity around the dialogue between contemporary Eastern and Western artistic traditions, presenting a rotating program of solo and group exhibitions that spans painting, sculpture, photography, and video. Its arrival in contemporary art in Istanbul signals an intent to embed that cross-cultural mission within one of the most culturally complex cities in the world — a city already positioned at the intersection of European and Asian artistic currents.

The Istanbul space inaugurated its program with a solo exhibition by Italian sculptor Lorenzo Quinn, whose monumental works and introspective series set a tone of international ambition for the new venue. The gallery's curatorial approach favors a broad range of practices, bridging established international artists with emerging voices, including a visible commitment to Turkish artists — as evidenced by group exhibitions featuring figures such as Selda Güneş, Kadir Akyol, Eda Baysal, and Çağlar Tağcı. Located in Kadıköy, a district long associated with independent cultural life on Istanbul's Anatolian side, the gallery occupies a terrain distinct from the more institutional gallery circuit of Beyoğlu and Nişantaşı. Among galleries in Istanbul, Mi Art Gallery brings an explicitly internationalist perspective, using its dual London–Istanbul presence to position itself as a bridge between collector audiences and artistic communities on both sides of the Bosphorus.