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, Monira Foundation, 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. Nazli teaches Drawing & Painting at Pratt Institute K-12 Center and has been running wax-sculpture workshops in different organizations. Nazli has been a Member Artist at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program in New York since 2022.

Statement

Being half Turkish—a country surrounded by Water on three sides—and half Cypriot, from an island in the Mediterranean, I grew up in constant connection with Water.

Water is a ritualistic, meditative, and performative medium through which I access my unconscious mind and manifest the emotional presence of memory in my installations and sculptures.

I’m deeply influenced by molybdomancy (kurşun dökme), a centuries-old divination practice in Turkey where molten lead is dropped into Water and the resulting shapes are interpreted. In my recent studies, I’ve adapted this ritual by working with molten wax instead. When the wax meets Water, it forms amorphous shapes similar to the Rorschach test. These forms become artifacts of my memories and emotions rising to the surface. Together with found objects, wax forms construct the material language of my installations.

In my latest body of work, I’ve been focusing on preserving my recollections. I draw from medical and culinary practices, using materials and methods like gauze, salt, vacuum sealing, and wax-coating. These choices inherit themes of conservation, healing, and ritual care.

My work exists at the intersection of the material and immaterial, the permanent and the ephemeral. Through transforming materials in an alchemical way, I engage with the ever-changing nature of memory. Memory follows form, and form follows memory.