Ekin Büyükşahin, aka Ekinakis, was born in 1985 in Ankara, and lives and works in Izmir. Ekin Büyükşahin graduated from the Viola Department of the Bilkent University, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts in 2008. Her interest in visual arts is a heritage from her childhood which she kept in the background until 2013, but which became her profession replacing music since then. Büyükşahin has concentrated on illustration and painting and she likes to experiment with various materials and techniques especially using acrylics and watercolors on different types of fabrics and paper; and digital techniques and collages in her illustrations. She is being closely followed in Turkey and abroad both through social media and her website and through her solo and group shows. Her illustrations are published in several publications and the artist is the author of a silent book titled The Man Who Likes Rain. Ekin Büyükşahin continues to work in her studio located in Urla.
The main characters of Ekin Büyükşahin’s visual world are figures with which the audience can easily and directly connect, reflecting the simplicity she prefers both in terms of emotions and also in color and form. These adult figures, mostly lonely, sometimes melancholic, live in a universe which manifests itself through the figures’ relations with an object, a place, or another figure similar to themselves. This character series derives principally from the complex relationship that adults establish with their emotions. Especially Ekin Büyükşahin’s recent works include suppression of emotions as the society’s expectation of control from an adult and the difficulties of authentic and sincere communication between these adults.
