Biography

Nazli Efe holds dual citizenship in Turkey and Cyprus, having grown up in both cultures. She studied Architecture at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul and at Virginia Tech University in Washington, DC. After five years of working in the creative industries, she earned her MFA with high honors from Pratt Institute in 2022. As an interdisciplinary artist, Nazli creates installations, sculptures, and performances that explore themes of Water, the unconscious mind, and memory.

Her work has been exhibited at RAINRAIN Gallery, the Sotheby's Institute of Art, Long Island City Artists, Field Projects, and she has held an online exhibition with the New Art Dealers Alliance. Nazli is the recipient of several awards, including the Stutzman Family Foundation Sculpture Award Special Recognition, and the Pratt Outstanding Merit Award. Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic and Whitehot magazines. She participated in the Pratt>Forward Residency Program in 2024 and is currently a fellow in The Bronx Museum's AIM Program. Since 2022, Nazli has been a Member Artist at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program in New York.

Statement

Being half Turkish, a country surrounded by Water on three sides, and half Cypriot; an island in the Mediterranean Sea, Nazli grew up constantly interacting with Water.

Water is a ritualistic, meditative, and performative medium that allows Nazli Efe to access her unconscious mind and manifest the emotional presence of memory in her work. She is influenced by molybdomancy (kurşun dökme), a centuries-old divination method in Turkey practiced by interpreting the shapes formed when molten lead is dropped into Water. In her recent studies, she creates artifacts of personal history and emergent psychic objects by dropping molten wax into Water. The amorphous wax forms shaped by the Water resemble the Rorschach test, evoking her memories.

In her latest body of work, Nazli deals with the idea of preserving her recollections by utilizing medical and culinary techniques and materials, which inherit the themes of conservation and care. She uses gauze, vacuum-sealed bags, beeswax, and salt to preserve her memories.

Nazli discusses the dialogue between immateriality and materiality, permanence, and ephemerality from a mystical aspect. Her installations include material experimentation, Nazli transforms materials in an alchemical way, referencing the ever-changing quality of memories. Memory follows form and form follows memory.