Hülya (Hülya Özdemir) Bilder

Hülya Özdemir comes from Istanbul and has been living in Bodrum, on the southern Aegean coast, for a few years. Even at school age, she knew she wanted to be an artist. But first she studied music. Drawing was her passion, especially drawing women.

Hülya calls herself an art feminist and ‘her women’ have a message. She wants to show with her works of art that women have to show more presence, that they have to be in the world with all their facets and claim space for themselves.

Hülya paints with watercolours and oil paints. She draws fine patterns with pencils, and she even illustrates some of them on the computer.

She draws inspiration from the faces of her friends or the people in her village, for example. She listens to a lot of music and she usually finds the titles for her works in song lyrics.

Almost all the women she paints have gigantic hair. This hair represents their thoughts, dreams and words. Her women are self-confident, proud and hold their gaze. Heavy jewellery, colourful robes, feminine curves. Özdemir's figures are classically feminine.

There is no minimalism in Hülya Özdemir's pictures; they are colourful and playful, and that is intentional. The artist has become very well known and famous through social media. Hülya herself says:
"I simply put a beautiful flowerpot with a plant in my window. And the people who passed by stopped to take a closer look at the plant in my window. I just paint or draw and share pictures of it on Instagram or Facebook. People who like my art share it with others, and that's how it took off. I never sent anyone my portfolio, people just found me. It's a window to the world for me."