Painter and Art Economist Ebru Ceylan was born in Düzce in 1984. She completed her primary, secondary, and high school education in Bursa. After studying Tax Auditing in Computer Engineering at Dumlupınar University and Economics at Anadolu University, she attended courses in art economics at the University of Cambridge in England.
For many years, alongside her artistic work, she has been working as a business development specialist in various projects. Ceylan held her first solo exhibition during her university years and, in 2015, opened her first professional exhibition series titled “Speaking Paintings.”
Türkiye’s first audio-described exhibition, “Speaking Paintings Literary – Eternal,” came to life through narrations of the stories behind the paintings by different artists. In total, this exhibition series met art lovers in 12 different locations, including various cities in Türkiye. The voices narrating the stories of the exhibition were compiled into an album and donated to the TEMA Foundation. The album reached nearly 10 million listeners. On February 21, 2020, the artist opened the Samsara exhibition, the first step of the Samsara Multidisciplinary Art Platform where she had been working for many years.
In this exhibition, she developed the idea of Neuroart, applied for the first time in the world. With brain imaging devices and eye-tracking glasses, visitors were given an experience that also provided scientific measurements. The exhibition posed the question: “Does art change people?” and scientific results proved that art indeed changes people. This was the first study conducted in this context. As a result of this work, she received the Innovation and Social Benefit Awards in 2021 from the Turkish Researchers Association’s Owl Awards. The artist continues to work on the Samsara project.
