Respect Street For Fikret Mualla

Conceptual Essence Narrative Expressionism (CENE) Pioneer Artist & Founder Co-Chairperson, Busan International Environmental Art Festival (BIEAF), 2026–2027 Contemporary Turkish Master Artist Award-Winning Artist • Grand Artist Award Winner • First Turkish Female Naval Artist MFA in Painting – Marmara University Internationally Exhibited • Works in Global Private Collections Göknil Gümüş Sungurtekin (b. 1977, Istanbul) is a contemporary Turkish artist and the founder of Conceptual Essence Narrative Expressionism (CENE), a research-driven artistic orientation integrating intuitive painting, conceptual inquiry, and personal narrative. CENE connects lived experience with psychological, philosophical, and collective dimensions through the language of painting. Her practice explores consciousness, memory, feminine energy, transformation, and the subconscious. Through vivid color, dynamic brushwork, and symbolic imagery, she creates layered visual narratives that move between abstraction and figuration. For Sungurtekin, painting is both an expressive and investigative process, where intuition, emotion, and lived experience become visual language. Sungurtekin has exhibited internationally in Istanbul, Berlin, Madrid, and Busan. She has been recognized through BIEAF’s World Artist selections and currently serves as Co-Chairperson of the BIEAF Steering Committee for 2026–2027. In 2004, Sungurtekin was selected by the Turkish Naval Forces as Turkey’s first female naval artist. Serving aboard the TCG Salih Reis frigate with the honorary rank of Major, she documented naval life and the Mediterranean during the Deniz Kurdu V voyage. Her naval works are held in Turkish Naval Forces and Naval Museum collections, and this experience became a foundation for her Wardroom and Rope series. Alongside her studio practice, Sungurtekin is the founder of Fogart Artist Studio, active since 2000, where she has mentored art students in painting and artistic development. She is also a co-founder of the Art For Good Project, connecting art with education, environmental awareness, and community-oriented initiatives. For Sungurtekin, art is both expression and discovery—a continuous journey of transformation and movement toward inner essence. “My art is the intuitive expression of that which comes from the essence and the journey that proceeds toward the essence.”