Gül Memis

“Painting is not chosen. It compels. I simply ran out of reasons to resist.”

Gül Memis is a full-time abstract painter based in Berlin. Born in Germany to parents from Istanbul, she grew up between two cultures, two languages and two sets of expectations. After decades in a corporate marketing career, she left everything behind to paint. That was not a decision. It was an inevitability. She works in heavy impasto on large-scale canvases, building surfaces that carry physical weight and emotional depth. Her series Claiming the Unlived explores cultural duality, womanhood and the reclamation of a life finally lived on her own terms. Her work has been shown in Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg. She holds an open studio at the RWK Studios within the 3CA artist collective in Berlin and will present her first solo exhibition at The Gallery of Things in 2027. She paints in absolute silence. With her whole body. Without a plan. The canvas tells her where to go. She just follows.