Leyla Pekmen is a contemporary artist living and working in Istanbul. Working across painting and ceramic sculpture, her practice explores the poetic relationship between nature, memory, and the human spirit. Drawing from landscapes, travel, and fleeting everyday moments, Pekmen constructs richly imagined narrative worlds that oscillate between reality and dreamlike fiction. Born and raised in Turkey, Pekmen developed an early affinity for painting through time spent in a neighboring artist’s studio during childhood, where she became captivated by color, form, and the emotional potential of visual storytelling. This early exposure continues to inform hermultidisciplinary practice, which moves fluidly between tactile surface, sculptural form, andnarrative space. Her paintings are characterized by bold fields of color, layered textures, and subtle shifts in scale and perspective. Employing color blocking alongside delicate pointillist techniques, Pekmen creates rhythmic compositions that evoke both intimacy and expansiveness. Her ceramic works embrace a more fluid and surreal visual language, often functioning as symbolic extensions of the emotional worlds present within her paintings. Influenced in part by the storytelling traditions of Ottoman miniatures, Pekmen constructs scenes in which figures, landscapes, and symbolic elements coexist within suspended, nonlinear spaces.Her compositions invite contemplation, offering quiet narratives shaped by curiosity, tenderness, and wonder. Across her practice, she repeatedly returns to themes of nature, connection, memory, and the simple rituals of daily life, weaving them into whimsical yet emotionally resonant visual narratives. Pekmen held her first solo exhibition in Istanbul in 2021 and has since exhibited across Turkey, Europe, and the United States. Her work has been presented in international exhibitions and major art fairs, and is held in private collections worldwide.