Born in 1994 in Baghdad, Maryam Turkey is an Iraqi-American award-winning artist and designer based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2009, she moved with her family as refugees to the United States, where she attended Baltimore School for the Arts high school and studied traditional painting. She continued her art and design education at Pratt Institute, where she earned her Bachelor of Industrial Design in 2017. After graduation, Turkey was awarded an art residency at the Museum of Art and Design. A number of other esteemed residencies followed, including the Silver Arts Residency at the World Trade Center (LMCC) and Worthless Studios, all in New York City.
Turkey’s work has been exhibited at several esteemed venues, including Wanted Design in New York (2018); Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York, as part of the lauded 2022 “The New Guard: Stories from the New World” young talent exhibition; and Milan Design Week 2022, as part of the “Love Letters” exhibition presented by 5VIE. She has been featured in publications such as Architectural Digest, Surface Magazine, Galerie Magazine, Wallpaper, and The Wall Street Journal.
In 2023, Turkey was granted the For Freedoms annual fellowship, supporting artists with a focus on social change. That same year, she revealed her first public sculpture at the Socrates Sculpture Park as part of the Socrates Annual Fellowship. Most recently, Turkey was awarded the 2024 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Design, which recognizes immigrants who have achieved early career excellence in the United States.
Photo courtesy of Vilcek Foundation.
Maryam Turkey
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