Berlin based artist Esra Gülmen was born in 1986, Istanbul.
After graduating from Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts with a degree in Interior Design, she worked as an academic for three years teaching basic design at the same department. Over the years, she established herself as a Design Executive Officer for Europe’s acclaimed advertising agency Ogilvy Germany and as Head of Design at Heimat Berlin before dedicating herself to art.
Defining the process of making art as therapy, Gülmen's works are shaped by human psychology and the tiny struggles and difficulties we all experience in daily life. In addition to fine art materials such as paper, canvas, fabric and marble, Gülmen considers everyday objects as canvases and uses them as surfaces. With her works, the artist invites the audience to think about on their daily feelings, habits, ways of loving and being loved.
While trying to expand the definition of writing and drawing as an artist, Esra Gülmen reminds us of the “calligrams” of the early twentieth century while focusing on the reality of the twenty-first century. Sometimes she personalises the most familiar discourses in popular culture, at other times anonymises a personal phrase of her own.
The artist, who has been in many group exhibitions as well as solo ones titled: “Don’t Play With My Emotions”, Pilevneli Gallery (İstanbul); "Don't I look Turkish?", X BOLD (Berlin); "It's just OK', XH Cube x Markenfilm Crossing (Hamburg); "Thirteen", Cafe Struik (Amsterdam), has been named among the world's best 200 illustrators in Lürzer's Archive Magazine a total of four times. As a member of ADC Germany, Gülmen has been selected four times in a row as one of the ‘200 Best Illustrators Worldwide’ by Lürzer’s Archive Magazine and was invited as a speaker to various festivals such as OFFF Festival, Forward Festival and Pictoplasma Festival. Moreover, she has been sitting on the jury of various design awards including Cannes Lions, One Show and Eurobest.