BIO

Born in Turkey in 1982, Alkan Avcıoğlu is a polymath and an outsider artist who believes in the transformative power of prolific creation. Recognized as a math child prodigy at an early age, he went on to study International Relations at university, followed by a master's degree in Film Studies, and then entered a Ph.D. programme in Communication Sciences. For years, he had lectured on Narratology courses and studied art theories at scholar level. His experience in the film industry is extensive, having served as a FIPRESCI member film critic for over 15 years. Throughout his writing career, he contributed regular columns to newspapers and magazines, specializing in visual arts and highlighting overlooked masterpieces in art history. For years, he curated the Hidden Gems section for the Istanbul International Film Festival, spotlighting banned, lost, overshadowed films. He also worked over a decade in theatrical distribution and film acquisitions, attending major film festivals worldwide for many years.

Alkan is also a DJ with a diverse range of creative endeavors spanning from digital manipulation to composing electronic music. He launched the innovative music magazine “Lull” in 2001, which quickly became a cult sensation. He composed over 50 electronic glitch ambient songs in the beginning of the 2000s with a pioneering use of digital tools. He embarked on digital painting as early as 1999 and has since created thousands of works. His expertise also lies in movie poster design, having acted as a creative director for over a hundred posters. A relentless, multifaceted experimenter, Alkan has focused on creating art with artificial intelligence for the last two years. He partnered with Fellowship and released his acclaimed 300-piece collection “Overpopulated Symphonies” under Post Photographic Perspectives. It serves as an AI-generated visual commentary on the contemporary human condition, encapsulating the metaphor of information overload in our crowded mental landscapes. 

Later in 2023 he released his AI generated video art series “The Show”, a multi-sensory spectacle that challenges conventional understandings of performance, consumerism and the self. He uses AI tools to create disorienting visual feasts and an invitation to question the mediated illusions that cloud our perceptions of reality. Recently, Alkan's work has been selected for numerous exhibitions including Paris Photo, Vogue’s Photo Festival 2023, Seattle NFT Museum’s “Convergence: AI and Art”, Superchief Gallery’s “Artist x Ai // 000004 - A Show of Hands”, and “Daydreaming with Machines” in POCO Museum of Pop and Contemporary Art.