Nermin Kura

Photo of Nermin Kura
Nermin Kura, Ph.D.Professor of Art and Architectural History

Contact Information

x3636nkura@rwu.eduSAHHP 251

Areas of Expertise

History of Art and Architecture, Ceramic Art, Art and Architecture of the Islamic World, History of Ceramics, Art and Nature, Photography, Multimedia Sculpture.

Education

M.F.A Rode Island School of Design
Ph.D. Bilkent University (Ankara-Turkey)
D.E.A and M.A. Université de Paris, I Panthéon-Sorbonne
B.A.  Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV

Nermin Kura is a Professor of Art and Architectural History in the Cummings School of Architecture, and also teaches Ceramics in the Feinstein School of Humanities, Arts and Education's Department of Visual Arts. 

The mystery of the occurrence of life and its embodiment is the focus of Nermin Kura’s artistic exploration. Her work includes ceramics, photography, and multimedia sculpture, and probes the concept of the “shape of existence” in a biosphere imbued with personhood, where the spiritual and material are intertwined, and all beings; animate and inanimate are interconnected and interdependent.

Kura’s ceramic work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions, in galleries, educational institutions, museums and art fairs in America, Europe and the Middle East. Her work has been featured in exhibitions representing national and regional developments in American ceramics. Internationally, her work been shown in London at Christie’s as well as the London Art Fair, in Paris at Carrousel du Louvre, and Gallerie Lipao Huang, in Istanbul at the Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Depot, Galerist, Macka and Gallery Apel and in Ankara at Galeri Nev, in Israel at the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery.

Her ceramics were selected for the distinguished exhibition; “Turkish Ceramic Art”: tracing developments from the 1930’s to the present organized in 2007 by Mimar Sinan University and published in its catalogue. Kura’s one-person show “Ser” which took place in 2013 in Ankara at Galeri Nev was accompanied by an exhibition catalogue written by art historian Serpil Bağcı; (an international expert on Ottoman art and miniature painting).

Recent exhibitions featuring Kura’s ceramics were; “Venus in Furs” Martch Art Project – Istanbul 2019,  the “Age Of Gold” group show for the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Galeri Nev Ankara 2019, “The Whole Planet Was Inside” at the Macka Sanat Galerisi – Istanbul (a parallel event to the 16th Istanbul Biennale, curator: Deniz Artun) , the “Still Life with a Curtain” group show at Galerist – Istanbul 2018 , “Un/Breakable”  (Christie’s first ever curated auction dedicated to ceramics from the traditional through to 21st Century Sculpture ) 2018 London.

As an art historian Nermin Kura has written articles for exhibition catalogues on the work of the renowned ceramist Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye for a number of international museums and galleries.

Kura’s work is represented by Galeri Nev in Ankara and by Gallery Apel in Istanbul and is featured in private and public collections in the USA, Turkey, Belgium, Holland, Norway, France, Israel and Italy.