Meet the curators

Duygu Gün and Bengü Gün are identical twins born and raised in Turkey and they both studied at Boğaziçi University, Business Administration Department. Bengü chose a path in cultural heritage management and wrote her M.A. thesis on Musical Instrument Museums Collection Management Policies with a merit-based scholarship at Koç University. She has consulted the Dubai Culture Foundation on developing their organizational strategies and on how to develop a cultural hub in the United Arab Emirates (2007). Bengü is the director of the Mixer Art Gallery (www.mixerarts.com), which is one of the most dynamic contemporary art centers since its foundation in 2012 in Istanbul. Mixer especially serves young and emerging artists as well as collectors who are seeking to discover young talents, and it provides a space and an online platform for emerging artists to exhibit their works. Alongside with her managerial duties, Bengü participates in the curatorial process of each exhibition from the idea stage to implementation and publicity. She also blends public participation through seminars and workshops with the core exhibition program of the gallery to foster inclusiveness. While working on independent curatorial projects, she also teaches ‘Gallery and Exhibition Management’ classes at Yeditepe University in Istanbul within the Arts and Culture Management department as a guest professor.

Meanwhile, Duygu’s curiosity for the ‘new’ (technologies, languages, cultures, people) took her on a journey around the world developing and launching new products and services at startups and tech giants; and expanding businesses beyond borders. Meanwhile, she also managed bands and curated performance arts events and collaborated with Bengü on the build of the web platform for the Mixer Art Gallery (www.mixerarts.com). Duygu moved to San Francisco in 2012 and joined the Emerging Arts Professionals fellowship program a network focused on empowerment, leadership, and growth of San Francisco Bay Area emergent arts & culture workers. As a musician herself, she has the passion to build bridges between the corporate/tech world and the local arts scene in order to generate local equity. She founded Festywise to activate underutilized public and private spaces into performance stages and create new revenue streams for local artists. With the same goal, she recently joined SFJAZZ Center to spearhead the Corporate Partnerships program.

Anastasia Georgievskaya

Anastasia Georgievskaya is following the trajectory of interdisciplinary art. The interdisciplinary approach in her artistic practice has drawn on her experience as a psychologist and artist. Personal events in her life were the initial point of reference for her visual research. She is currently focusing on total installations which include art objects, paintings, graphics and video art. She’s graduating from the MMOMA School of Contemporary Art. Influenced by her experiences in Sri Lanka, and the birth of her son there in 2014, it became a starting point for Second Childhood. Starting as a personal story, a self-analysis of memory, now, it is an international interdisciplinary art project. In the 15 years of her active exhibition career, Georgievskaya took part in more than 50 art shows globally. She participated in the International Biennale of Contemporary Art and has worked in various international art residencies. To see past and present projects visit, artgeorgievskaya.com.

To learn more about their work, please follow on instagram: @art_georgievskaya

Ceyda Oskay

Ceyda Oskay (Jayda) is an artist, humanitarian consultant, fashion and textiles designer who is currently based between Turkey and London. Her work, spanning various media and locations, is often experimental, socially engaged, about migration and place. Her humanitarian and development work has made her aware of the fragility of life, and the contradiction between fleeting moments and historical cannons – often entwined. Through her work, she seeks to address how we are transformed through conversation and seemingly random events. Healing is also important to her and through her clothing brand: cc by co (custom clothing by ceyda oskay), she creates hand-painted and printed clothing with elements of healing – created after sessions with her clients which she combines with her intuition.

To learn more about her work, please follow on Instagram: @ceyda.oskay.art

Daniel Konhauser

In his work, Daniel Konhauser provides interactive opportunities for audiences to become participants in the co-creation of the work. Tension is added with the intersection of real time interactions, with time-transformed, pre recorded events. His aim is to create work with an emotional effect, and to induce a personal, internal narrative in the audience. Daniel is endlessly fascinated by obsolete analog technologies and vintage forms, and reinvent and reinvestigate them with digital techniques. The lullaby is a long enduring practice, and his pieces, “Invisible Theremin” and “Optical Score”, encourage entrants to spontaneously create their own versions of this form.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @dkonhauser

Duygu Gün

Duygu Gün is an explorer, storyteller, musician, and arts professional originating from Anatolia. Duygu grew up appreciating, belonging and longing for two different cultures; Turkish and Greek. Her works incorporate explorations and interpretations of the cultures she has been hosted by, exploring commonalities and questioning underlying messages within traditions using music, video, light, and shadow as mediums. Duygu performs around the Bay Area covering traditional Turkish, Sephardic, and Balkan music. Currently, she is working on a documentary about the Bay Area’s Balkan music scene. She is an arts professional passionate about enhancing the local music scene and works at SFJAZZ managing corporate partnerships.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @duybeni

Elena Mencarelli

Elena Mencarelli is a polyhedral visual artist. She uses painting, objects manipulation and botanical art as forms of expression. Art Nouveau, Surrealism, and Narrative Art inspire her visual language, while Symbolism and Mythology feed her research. Mencarelli accomplished a Master’s degree in Visual Arts at the DAMS University (ITA). In 2018 she collaborated on the text of the catalog for “A Better Landscape” exhibition for Unimedia Modern in Genova, Italy and in 2019 she published an art essay with Mimesis Editor. She worked for Red Poppy Art House as a performance host and art curator from 2016 to 2020.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @elena_mencarelli

Güneş Terkol

Güneş Terkol takes inspiration from her immediate surroundings, collects materials and stories which she weaves into her sewing pieces, videos, sketches, and musical compositions. Terkol’s artworks are mostly inspired by mythological stories and her own past along with her dreams. Starting point of her series of works is the female conversations, which the artist saved during the workshops she organised in different countries. She received her Master’s degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Yıldız Technical University.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @gunesterkol

Hannah Reyes Morales

Hannah Reyes Morales is a Filipina photographer and National Geographic Explorer whose work documents tenderness amidst adversity. Her photography, both visceral and intimate, takes a look at how resilience is embodied in daily life. Based in Manila, Reyes Morales’ work explores the universal themes of diaspora, survival, and the bonds that tie us together. Hannah is currently working on longer term projects, focused on safe-space making and caregiving. 

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @hannahreyesmorales

Husniya Khujamyorova

Born in the remote Pamir mountains of Tajikistan, Husniya Khujamyorova’s adventurous and courageous spirit brought her to New York City at only 21 years of age. In addition to excelling at her studies and completing her Master’s of Science and Education in Spring 2019, she remains an active member of her community where she helps recent migrants apply for schools, offers translation services for those in need, and cares for friends who live far away from their families and loved-ones overseas. Husniya Khujamyorova will participate in Mother’s Bosom exhibition with her project ‘Lullabies of New York’ which is a collection of traditional lullabies in various languages spoken in New York documented with cell phones, cameras, ethnographic interviews, and still photography.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @elalliance

İris Ergül

Iris Ergül is a practicing artist currently based in Istanbul, Turkey. Iris has a background with philosophical studies and years of hands-on experience in the clothing industry. All of these facets contribute to her artwork today. She received her BFA in Sculpture summa cum laude from the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (MSFAU) in Istanbul and graduated with an MFA degree in Studio Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is pursuing phD study in Fine Arts and is currently teaching courses on Contemporary Art Practice at the MSFAU. She has received the Sabancı Art Prize, Fulbright Scholarship and SFAI Fellowship.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @iris_ergul

Nooshin Hakim

Nooshin Hakim Javadi works at the intersection of sculpture, installation, and performance. As an Iranian now living in the United States, Javadi’s practice investigates the material culture of conflict, displacement, and transition, considering how these experiences are internalized by the body. In 2017 she received the Outstanding Student Achievement in Cxontemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2017, while completing her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @noushba

Rashin Fahandej

Rashin Fahandej is a transdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and Assistant Professor of Emerging and interactive Media at Emerson College. Her projects center on marginalized narratives and foster the role of media, technology, and public collaboration for social change. A proponent of “Art as Ecosystem,” she defines her projects as “Poetic Cyber Movement for Social Justice,” where art mobilizes a plethora of voices by creating connections between public places and virtual spaces. 

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @rashinfahandej

Taro Hattori

Taro Hattori uses sculptural and relational installations, to work and create an environment where viewers are faced with conflicting issues, a question to ponder, and an experience to grapple with. Hattori often starts projects with an uncomfortable question in which multiple elements coexist in a dissonant harmony. In each installation, disjunction emerges between choices of materials, aesthetics, human actions and sociopolitical contexts. The relationship between conflict and harmony is used to further explore human desire, vulnerability, and destruction. 

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @Taro_hattori

Zsudaka Terrell

Zsudayka Nzinga is a mixed media artist and designer from Denver, CO. Her portraits feature acrylic, decorative paper, hand dyed paper, fabric, oil bars, charcoal, pigment and linocut stamp. Nzinga fuses traditional art forms passed through the Diaspora to create work that speaks to the power of history and how visual art aids in defining culture and identity. Her subjects are Black Americans and often women, placed in regal and empowering poses and scenes. Her work mimics African American stitch patterns and expounds traditional Southern textile pattern methods. Her collage work is hand torn and arranged to create colorful and highly patterned people who resemble fabric.

To learn more about their work, please follow on Instagram: @zsudayka

Calendar Listings

Exhibition run: Friday, July 16–Sunday, August 22, 2021
Virtual Gallery Experience launches: Friday, July 16, 2021
Curated by Duygu and Bengü Gün, Sounds Like Home generates conversations on identity and gender roles while exploring how lullabies are used as transmitters of cultural memory.

To learn more, visit: somarts.org/event/soundslikehome

Virtual Opening Reception
Thursday, July 15, 6–8 PM PST
The exhibition launches with a virtual opening reception that brings together Sounds Like Home curators and exhibiting artists in conversation followed by Lullaby Sessions with Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat and Khatchadour Khatchadourian.

To learn more, visit: somarts.org/event/soundslikehomeopening

Sounds Like Home: The Lullaby Project
Thursday, July 29, 6–7 PM PST

Conceived by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, this virtual talk features a panel with collaborators The Lullaby Project, Noe Music, and Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP) to discuss their efforts to support new parents experiencing housing insecurity and other challenging life situations.

To learn more, visit: somarts.org/event/soundslikehometalk