About Mertim Gokalp
Mertim Gokalp is a Turkish-Australian contemporary figurative artist and realism tattoo artist based in Sydney. He was granted a Distinguished Talent Visa by the Australian Government in recognition of his artistic achievements.
Mertim trained at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul, where he developed a strong foundation in classical drawing, painting and portraiture. Since relocating to Australia, his work has been recognised in major portrait awards including the Archibald Prize, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and the Black Swan Art Prize, as well as a number of regional and international exhibitions.
He won the Kennedy Art Prize in 2017 for his portrait of Manu Feildel, and is a two-time winner of the Hunters Hill Art Prize (2017 and 2018). His work has also received recognition from the School of Visual Arts in New York and other prestigious exhibitions.
Alongside painting, Mertim extends his fine-art practice into tattooing, approaching the medium with the same commitment to realism, anatomy and psychological depth.
Artist Statement
"For me, painting is a synthesis of feeling, observation and struggle — a way of breathing in and out"
Portraiture is a central part of my practice because it allows me to explore the inner life of the subject. I am less interested in literal likeness than in capturing psychological presence. The portraits are not simply depictions of people sitting for me; they are subjective portraits of the psyche — open to interpretation, layered, and often enigmatic.
My paintings aim to challenge the viewer and invite them to confront their own emotional responses. In this sense, they are as much about the viewer as they are about the sitter. They are also a quiet celebration of the human form.
My landscapes work in a similar way. Rather than documenting places, they reflect my personal relationship with them — moments of atmosphere, memory and sensitivity.
Having trained in a Fine Arts Academy tradition, I hold a deep respect for classical techniques and the discipline of the great masters, while continuing to develop a personal visual language that reflects my own time, experience and observations.
- Mertim Gokalp