Some stories start with a plane ticket. For Turkish visual artist Nazende Afakoğlu, it started with a feeling that a chapter of her life was ending and a new one was ready to begin.
Until 2018, she lived in Istanbul and worked in public relations and trade marketing. Then her husband received a job offer from Mongolia, and the couple moved to Ulaanbaatar with their cat, Hera. She remembers enjoying the new life, even stepping outside when the temperature dropped below zero just to see how her body would react. The coldest she has experienced so far is minus 46 degrees Celsius.
After a short return to Istanbul, she started again from zero. In that period she began turning her struggles and uncertainties into art. Art had always been part of her life, but she began to make much more room for it.
In 2019 the couple moved to Malta because of her husband's work. It was meant to be a one-year project. Staying became a decision they both made willingly, and one year turned into seven. Coming from a city as big as Istanbul, she says she never imagined feeling so at home on a small island. She loves Malta's rhythm, which mixes city life with the closeness of a small town.
Malta also changed her paintings. After moving, she noticed new colours and textures in her work. The climate, nature, the Mediterranean and living close to the sea all left their mark. Even the view from the balcony of her home, which is also her studio, found its way onto the canvas. Images of the underwater world slowly became part of her visual style. Alongside painting, she has moved into video art and installations.
She is open about the fact that putting down roots takes time and effort. Belonging does not happen automatically, she says. The close friendships she has built in Malta have become one of the most important parts of feeling settled, and she calls these friends her chosen family.
The result is Unpromised Flowers, her first solo exhibition. It opened in New York on 23 October 2026 and runs until 14 November 2026 at Turkish House on United Nations Plaza. It brings together paintings, installation and video art about the memories and changes that follow migration. It has eight sections. The first, Veda Prosesi (The Farewell Process), uses passports, biometric photographs and official documents set against her colourful artistic world. The section for her chosen artwork, Inner Journey, opens with the line: "Migration is a journey that begins upon arrival."
She started preparing about a year and a half before the opening. She describes seeing her work reach an international audience as like watching a garden bloom after years of planting seeds and caring for it. She thanks the diplomats and institutions who supported the exhibition, and her friend Kıvılcım Akay, who also lives in Malta and curated it.
What can someone starting out take from this?
- A plan for a year can become a home. Nazende and her husband came for one project and chose to stay.
- Friendships take time, and they matter. She credits her close friends in Malta as a big part of feeling rooted.
- Your surroundings can feed your work. The climate, the sea and a balcony view all shaped her art.
- Keep making things. She began turning hard moments into art, and that work grew into an international show.
A move to a new country is a big step. Her story shows that, with time, it can lead somewhere good.
Sources
Expatax – Unpromised Flowers: Nazende Afakoğlu’s Journey Through Art – expatax.mt/unpromised-flowers-nazende-afakoglu-journey-trough-art