Haluk Akakçe

Who is Haluk Akakçe?

Haluk Akakçe is a contemporary artist living and working in New York and Istanbul whose work explores the intersections between society and technology through video animations, wall paintings and sound installations. He trained in architecture at Bilkent University, Ankara, then graduated with an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Akakçe's work has appeared in the Istanbul and San Paulo Biennials, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Walker Art Center. Among his numerous solo shows, Akakçe has exhibited at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York and the Berlin KunstWerke. He was shortlisted for the Beck's Futures award at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 2004.

In November 2006, Haluk Akakçe's The Sky is the Limit animated the 12.5 million LEDs of the enormous Viva Vision canopy on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, a public art project in collaboration with Creative Time, the City of Las Vegas Arts Commission and the Fremont Street Experience. At 8 p.m. each evening that month, the entire street was plunged into darkness before Akakçe's animation began to trickle across the LED surface, gradually turning the canopy into a cascade of abstractions and colors.