Ilgaz Gürün shapes her artistic practice through moments she encounters in everyday life. An ordinary yet peculiar detail that catches her eye while walking down the street, an analysis she reads about human nature, an unexpected narrative structure encountered in a film, or a figure that challenges norms with its physical characteristics—any of these can serve as a starting point for her paintings. The artist documents these moments when possible—through photographs or by keeping them in mind—and later reimagines them on the canvas. These lingering observations gradually evolve into a narrative that is at once slightly eerie and subtly ironic.

By using open compositions, Gürün aims to create a more natural and lifelike impression in her works. The atmosphere, intensified by dramatic lighting arrangements, draws the viewer into a scene that feels both familiar and uncanny. In this way, her works make the absurdities we have come to accept in the flow of daily life visible. Drawing inspiration from disciplines such as photography, theater, and cinema, the artist focuses on familiar experiences of being human. She seeks to establish a shared emotional space with the viewer, searching for the universal within the personal.

Born in 1998 in Kocaeli, Gürün graduated from the Department of Painting at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2022. She completed her master’s degree in Painting at the same university in 2025. Her first solo exhibition, On Being, was held at EVİN in the same year, and she was included among the participants of BASE’25. The artist continues her practice in her studio in Istanbul.