Samuray Akarvardar is an abstract figurative artist whose work explores harmony and balance within unnatural settings. Her figures reflect the modern human’s relationship with the past and the unknown future. 

Akarvardar is inspired by other people’s stories, politics, history, literature and archeology. Her childhood memories include family trips to the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey, where she would see the ruins of the Greek, Roman, and Anatolian civilizations. Her fascination with ancient figurines and classical Greek sculptures serves as the foundation for her approach to abstraction. As the details are gradually erased from these artifacts over centuries, their meaning and social value are transformed, leaving the contemporary viewer with visual ambiguity and a sense of the unknown. This complex relationship with the past enables Akarvardar to reimagine the human form in a poetic, playful, and subtly absurd manner.

Drawing inspiration from diverse sources including yoga poses, ancient figurines, and historical imagery, Akarvardar’s artistic process begins with ink and watercolor drawings on paper. These expressive, gestural studies are then translated into more structurally composed paintings, an approach that reflects an ongoing attempt to impose order on chaos and to discover moments of balance within unstable environments. Collage is an essential component of her practice, functioning as a means of both dissecting and reconstructing the human form. This process also allows her to incorporate materials such as fabric, plexiglass, and sewing patterns, deepening the connection between her figures and the external world. Through this process, she develops a visual language that is both formally refined and conceptually layered.