The Pill Gallery Gallery in Istanbul
Fatih · Contemporary programme
Editorial Profile
Founded in 2016 by Suela J. Cennet on Istanbul’s historic peninsula, The Pill Gallery occupies a distinctive position within contemporary art in Istanbul, combining the scale of an international commercial gallery with a program shaped by conceptual and political concerns. Its official statement frames the gallery as a “global platform” for contemporary art, with programming informed by modernist ideas of utopia and dystopia, and by questions of displacement, diaspora, feminisms, and queer aesthetics. Located in a former generator factory in Fatih, the space is presented as architecturally flexible, a condition that supports exhibitions moving across painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, and text-based practices rather than a fixed medium-specific identity.
The program brings together emerging and internationally recognized artists, with a roster that includes Soufiane Ababri, Özlem Altın, Mireille Blanc, Pablo Dávila, Leylâ Gediz, İrem Günaydın, Eva Nielsen, Ugo Schiavi, Apolonia Sokol, Marion Verboom, Gernot Wieland, and Nil Yalter. Recent and past exhibitions such as About The Artist by İrem Günaydın, Nobody’s Mother by Apolonia Sokol, Looking Sideways: A Guide to Misinterpreting Myself by Aziza Shadenova, and The Day the Sand Caught Fire by Ugo Schiavi suggest a sustained interest in subjectivity, memory, embodiment, and cultural translation. Among galleries in Istanbul, The Pill stands out for its strong international circulation: its fair history includes Art Basel Paris, Tokyo Gendai, Untitled Miami Beach, Expo Chicago, ARCO Madrid, Material Mexico City, FIAC, and Contemporary Istanbul, while its 2024 Paris expansion further reinforces its role as a bridge between Istanbul and broader contemporary art networks.
Selected Artists
Soufiane Ababri
Moroccan
Eva Nielsen
French
Nil Yalter
Turkish
Leylâ Gediz
Turkish
Marion Verboom
French
Apolonia Sokol
French
Özlem Altın
German
Selected Exhibitions
In An Instant, The Magician Had Conjured A Dove From His Hat
Soufiane Ababri
Intarsia III
Eva Nielsen
Stagehand
Leylâ Gediz
Kısmet
Özlem Altın
Skin Story
Nil Yalter
Nobody's Mother
Apolonia Sokol
Cosmovisions
Eva Nielsen, Marion Verboom
Explore Istanbul
Three ways of reading the contemporary art landscape of Istanbul.
