Semiha Berksoy's Stage and Canvas in One Room

Aria of All Colours follows the connections Semiha Berksoy built between opera, theatre, painting and literature. Known as Turkey's first state opera singer, she worked well beyond the stage, and the exhibition links these fields rather than separating them, since in her hands a role could become a portrait and a costume could become a canvas.

The framing treats interdisciplinary work not as a current fashion but as the working condition of a generation: in the early decades of the republic, performing and visual arts were produced within one small circle and new institutions. The intense colour and exaggerated gesture she developed for the stage carry directly into her painting. Her reassessment has accelerated recently, after decades in which the paintings were treated as a private sideline, a pattern familiar to women artists in Turkey. The show opened on 22 January 2026 and closes on 6 September 2026 at the museum in Karaköy. The documents and personal material are worth the time.