Melike Kara

Melike Kara (b. 1985 Bensberg, Germany)’s artistic practice operates at the intersection of personal archival research, collective historiography, and painterly translation. Her work emerges out of a sustained engagement with her Kurdish heritage, which she has researched, archived, and processed artistically over many years. This history remains in her work without becoming definitive, rather, Kara’s paintings, with their fluid marks and unanchored forms, point towards an unnameable presence that is not tied to origin or role. Her approach to abstraction thus becomes a form of epistemic refusal—an insistence on spaces where meaning can remain fluid rather than fixed. 

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Kunsthaus Hamburg; MO.CO. Montpellier; SCHIRN Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen; Kunsthalle Zürich; Kunstverein Düsseldorf; Museum De Fundatie, Zwolle; Philara Foundation, Düsseldorf; Frac des pays de la Loire, Nantes; Mead Gallery | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry; Neue Galerie Gladbeck; Ludwig Forum Aachen; 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh; Kölnischer Kunstverein; Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels; Kunstverein Göttingen; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Yuz Museum, Shanghai and Dortmunder Kunstverein. She will have a solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Hamburg in 2026. Kara lives and works in Cologne, Germany.