Ömer Faruk Erdoğan at Arete Ankara: Bathhouses, Memory and the Question of Belonging

Some questions start private and end up public. “Where did I come from, and where do I belong?” is one of them — and in the hands of the painter Ömer Faruk Erdoğan it becomes plural. Ömer Faruk Erdoğan: “Nereden Geldik, Nereye Aidiz?” at Arete, Ankara — “Where Did We Come From, Where Do We Belong?” — opened on 17 October 2026 and continues until 15 November in the gallery’s space in Çankaya.

Ömer Faruk Erdoğan at Arete: from “I” to “we”

The gallery’s exhibition text describes a shift that runs through the show. The artist’s question begins in the singular — where did I come from, where do I belong? — and gradually widens into the collective “we”. That movement is the key to reading the paintings: they start from personal experience but are built to become shared, so that a moment, a place or a small detail can trigger a different memory in each person who looks at them.

Erdoğan’s raw material is ordinary life. Arete highlights his interest in the passing moments of daily routine — the ones that slip by unnoticed yet leave a lasting emotional residue. The gallery describes his practice as image-based and experimental, and on its Artsy listing connects the shifting viewpoints in his compositions to the tradition of Turkish miniature painting, in which several perspectives can coexist on one surface and everyday scenes take on a narrative charge.

The works: Hamam, Edim and Penthouse Party

The exhibition is less a single series than a meeting of several, and the gallery presents that as the point: seen together, they reveal continuity and change in the artist’s work and the links between past and present, personal and collective memory. Arete lists thirteen paintings, all acrylic on canvas and all but one made in 2026, ranging from intimate 50 × 40 cm panels to large canvases of 160 × 150 cm.

• The Hamam paintings take the Turkish bathhouse as their setting — a space that is at once communal and deeply private, where bodies, steam and conversation share the same marble. As a subject for a show about belonging, it could hardly be more apt.
• The Edim series (Edim Serisi) appears as a distinct group within the exhibition; the Turkish word refers to an act or performance.
• Yüzleşme (Confrontation) and Penthouse Party shift the scene from tradition to contemporary social life, suggesting the same questions of belonging play out at a rooftop party as in a historic bath.

Arete does not publish an extended biography of the artist on its exhibition page, so details of his training and earlier exhibitions are best checked directly with the gallery.

Ankara’s gallery scene in October

Ankara is often described in the shadow of Istanbul, but autumn shows how lively the capital’s art calendar has become. Çankaya, home to embassies, universities and many of the city’s commercial galleries, is the natural centre of that scene, and Arete is part of it. October also brings the ARTNOUVA fair at the ATO Congresium (21–25 October), which makes this a good week to combine gallery visits with a fair. Arete is running more than one presentation at the same time this season, so visitors may find additional work on view.

Why it matters

For painters, Erdoğan’s approach to space is the thing to study: how acrylic on canvas can carry several viewpoints at once without collapsing into confusion, and how a familiar interior like a hamam can be made strange. For collectors, a solo show of new, mostly 2026 work in a range of sizes is an accessible way to follow an artist whose practice is still developing. And for anyone interested in how contemporary Turkish painting negotiates its own visual heritage, the miniature reference offers a useful lens.

Visiting information

Arete, Hilal Mah., Alexander Dubçek Cad. No: 18/B, Çankaya, Ankara. 17 October – 15 November 2026. Monday–Saturday 09:30–18:30. Phone +90 532 617 66 11, [email protected]. See the official exhibition page, our Ömer Faruk Erdoğan listing, and Upcoming Art Exhibitions in Leading Galleries for more shows in Ankara, Istanbul and beyond.