Nazli Efe (b. 1989) grew up in Turkey and Cyprus holding both nationalities. She studied Architecture at Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, and Virginia Tech University in Washington DC. After working in creative industries for 5 years she completed her MFA at Pratt Institute in 2022 with high honors. She is an interdisciplinary artist making installations, sculptures, and performances that focus on spirituality and the qualities of water.

Nazli discusses the dialogue between immateriality and materiality, permanence and ephemerality from a mystical aspect. She employs both traditional methods that utilize water (especially marbling and Molvbdomancy) and contemporary techniques to depict a transcendental world in unity in an increasingly polarized world.

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. In her current study, 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. Memory follows form and form follows memory.

Nazli is a Member Artist at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program in New York. Her works have been featured in Hyperallergic and exhibited both in the United States and Turkey.

nazliefeart@gmail.com

Photo Credit: Federico Savini