Art ON was founded by Oktay and Nil Duran in 2011 to primarily support young Turkish contemporary artists that create works of cultural, political and social significance.

Around seven, five-week long exhibitions are staged in the modestly-sized space per year, either solo shows of the gallery’s artists or exhibitions of established international artists (the gallery opened with a Damien Hirst exhibition, for instance). From late 2013, the gallery opened a second space at the Zorlu Center in nearby Levent.

Although the gallery is new, its roster of artists already has over a dozen Turkish names – artists mostly in the early stages of their careers, with a handful of established artists as well. These include Ercan Akin; the Vienna-based painter Kemal Seyhan, whose paintings are narrated by the four words – horizontal, vertical, colour, intensification; Sencer Vardarman; and the Ankara-based visual artist Fırat Engin. In terms of new talent, there’s Olcay Kuş; the Izmir-born and based multi-disciplinary artist Hayal Incedoğan; Burcu Perçin, who despite her young age has already been quite successful in the Turkish art world; and Onur Mansız, an upcoming hyperrealist artist who garnered a lot of attention at the 2013 Contemporary Istanbul.