Umut Hevi Çelik was born in 1985 in Taşlıçay, a district of Ağrı located in the eastern region of Türkiye. His early life was shaped by the austere geography, the profound silence, and the monumental solitude of the region. These formative experiences infused with the socio-political realities of growing up as a Kurdish-origin citizen in Türkiye constitute the foundational layers of his artistic and existential inquiries. Issues of identity, belonging, and collective memory, often marked by erasure and repression are central to both his personal history and his artistic production.
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Çelik’s engagement with art began at a young age. Prior to his formal education at Uludağ University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 2013 with a degree in Art Education, he received training in drawing and painting under the guidance of established artists such as Mustafa Karyağdı and Günal Salt. These early pedagogical encounters were instrumental in shaping his sustained interest in the human figure, which remains a critical element in his sculptural and pictorial language.
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In 2017, Çelik established Nu Hevi Art Studio, a space that functions not only as a site of artistic production but also as a locus of resistance, agency, and autonomous expression. Since its founding, the studio has yielded over 300 works encompassing both sculpture and painting. His material choices ranging from ceramic, bronze, and fiber to plexiglass, wood, metal, and aluminum are marked by a dual concern for technical precision and conceptual resonance.
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Çelik’s practice engages critically with contemporary socio-political issues, including sexual violence, structural marginalization, ecological degradation, and the politics of sustainability. For the artist, art serves as a space of remembrance, confrontation, and repair. His figural works often centered around representations of the female body act as corporeal vessels for silenced narratives, unspoken traumas, and suppressed historical memories. Each sculpture emerges as a site where pain, resistance, and regeneration intersect.
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A key dimension of Çelik’s practice is his commitment to ecological consciousness and sustainable methodologies. The transformation and repurposing of discarded materials reflect not only an aesthetic decision but also an ethical stance. His sensitivity to the environment, the body, and the broader conditions of existence is inscribed not merely in the materiality of his works, but in their conceptual and affective cores.
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His oeuvre has been featured in several thematic exhibitions, including The Color of Freedom and Wings of the Birds. In 2025, his solo exhibition Qalik (Shell) in Amsterdam marked a significant milestone in his career, allowing his practice to engage with new cultural and political contexts on an international platform.
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