
Emre Arikan (Eskişehir, 1999) is an artist and printmaker based in Amsterdam. He graduated as an urban planner from Architecture Faculty of Middle East Technical University in 2022. After working as an architect and landscape designer, he changed his focus to graphic design and started working with different printmaking methods such as woodcuts and linocuts.
He found that the traditional printmaking methods are the places where he can utilize the great contrast between positive and negative, to show the grey areas and the lines in between.
Nature, alchemy, psychology, symbolism, and folk stories form the wellspring of his imagination, offering a language through which the unseen can be shaped and shared. For him, art is more of a process than a product; a slow distillation of the intangible into presence, and a way of conversing with the deeper layers of one’s own being.
Rooted in the conviction that the quietest truths can ignite profound change, Arıkan’s work explores the political dimensions of art as a tool for reimagining collective futures. His practice is driven by the belief that personal expression can ripple outward, unsettling dominant narratives and shaping social realities.
Through this lens, he investigates how art can move beyond representation to become an act of resistance, a means of questioning power, cultivating awareness, and nurturing the possibility of change.