Art Market
Portrait of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli
Interior view of Irini Karayannopoulou, Dark Luna, 2024. ©ISTANBUL’74. Courtesy of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli.
For Demet Müftüoğlu Eşeli, collecting art is as much about creating a platform for artistic exchange as it is about populating her living space.
In 2009, Demet and her filmmaker husband Alphan founded the art-and-culture organization ISTANBUL’74 and its annual IST.FESTIVAL, a program of art-minded discussions and presentations. Previous guests have included Jeff Koons, Sheree Hovsepian, Tilda Swinton, and Kirsten Dunst.
From the outset, Müftüoğlu Eşeli and her husband didn’t consider collecting art to be “about accumulation.” Many of the works they own are the result of “connections,” she noted: “I’m drawn to artists whose work carries emotion, narrative, and urgency.”
The couple’s collection features works by international names such as Nicolas Pol, Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe, Daniel Arsham, Anton Corbijn, and Robert Montgomery, alongside Turkish artists including Ahmet Doğu İpek, Ertuğrul Güngör & Faruk Ertekin, Mehmet Ali Uysal, and Belkıs Balpınar.
Interior view of the Müftüoğlu Eşeli residence. ©ISTANBUL’74. Courtesy of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli.
The couple resides in a former fisherman’s house in Istanbul’s quaint Kandilli neighborhood, where sounds of seagulls and ferries mingle from the nearby Bosphorus Strait. Designed by local architect Seyhan Özdemir Sarper, the three-story dwelling is an art-filled sanctuary for the globe-trotting duo, where art is hosted with an air of effortless swag.
The sandy-hued tones, which hint at 1970s West Coast interiors, wash the dwelling with amber shades in furniture and carpeting. An Alexander Calder mobile rests on the coffee table, not so far from a ceramic sculpture by their close friend and collaborator José Parlá.
Bodrum, Turkey-based textile artist Belkıs Balpınar’s bow-shaped weaving, Balloon (2014), sits by the spiral staircase; Greek artist Irini Karayannopoulou’s collage painting, Dark Luna (2024), leans against a wall at an intimate corner, following the work’s presentation in the artist’s 2025 solo exhibition, “Luna,” at the swanky Istanbul members club Clubhouse Bebek.
Interior view of Belkıs Balpınar, Balloon, 2014. ©ISTANBUL’74. Courtesy of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli.
Interior view of Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe, Random Forest Collage, 2023. © ISTANBUL’74. Courtesy of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli.
Müftüoğlu Eşeli’s background as a curator and her collecting “have informed each other deeply,” she says. She organized the group exhibition “NEARNESS: A Neighborhood Exhibition” as part of the most recent edition of the IST.FESTIVAL last October with artworks by artists including Stefan Brüggemann and Sheree Hovsepian housed in venues including ISTANBUL’74’s headquarters and within some of the nearby businesses, such as a butchershop and a florist.
“There’s something very personal about bringing an artist’s work into your home, and at the same time, there’s something very generous about sharing that energy with the public,” she said.
“The artists I collect are often those I’ve had the privilege to work with and build relationships with through ISTANBUL’74,” Müftüoğlu Eşeli added. Parlá, for example, has participated in various festival iterations as a speaker as well as a subject of a solo exhibition, titled “ISTHMUS,” which Müftüoğlu Eşeli organized at a storefront in the city’s bustling cobblestoned district, Akaretler, during the 2019 Istanbul Biennial. A few months later, they partnered with the New York–based artist again for a booth at Untitled Art, Miami Beach, where they presented the same series of ceramic vessels, one of which Müftüoğlu Eşeli currently owns.
Interior view of José Parlá, ISTHMUS CERAMIC 9, 2019. ©ISTANBUL’74. Courtesy of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli.
The cross-pollination between different roles also lifts the curtain to the ways an artwork makes its way into the duo’s private collection. “I mostly acquire works directly from artists—through studio visits, conversations, and relationships with the galleries,” Müftüoğlu Eşeli said.
Her advice to those new to art buying is unsurprising given her personal path: “You need to know the artist in person and understand the depth of their personality, which is what adds so much to their work,” she said.
Still, collecting art is often about accepting that some works get away. Müftüoğlu Eşeli points to the early collage works of Angel Otero, the Puerto Rico– and Brooklyn-based painter of textured, often collaged, abstractions. Müftüoğlu Eşeli partnered with the gallery Lehmann Maupin in 2012 to present the painter’s work at ISTANBUL’74’s gallery space and it sold out before the opening. “His practice has only grown richer and more profound over the years, and it would have been so special to have one more of his early works from that moment in our shared history,” she added.
Interior view of the Müftüoğlu Eşeli residence. ©ISTANBUL’74. Courtesy of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli.
Exterior view of the Müftüoğlu Eşeli residence. ©ISTANBUL’74. Courtesy of Demet and Alphan Müftüoğlu Eşeli.
Müftüoğlu Eşeli is a firm believer in the personal resonance of engaging in art, of being allowed into the world of an artist, and “gaining access to their perspective.” Owning a work of art is, for her, “the end point of that journey—an artifact of that privilege.”
Whether in work, as a collector, or simply as an appreciator, art is the through line that unites the various aspects of Müftüoğlu Eşeli’s life—and owning an artwork still carries a unique thrill. “It’s all part of the same rhythm—living with art, working with art, and allowing it to shape how we see the world,” Müftüoğlu Eşeli said. “Collecting is a way of honoring that exchange.”
