Murat Önen (b. 1993, Istanbul) began his formal art education at the Istanbul Avni Akyol Anatolian High School of Fine Arts, followed by Mimar Sinan University, and later the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. In 2023, he completed his studies under Yeşim Akdeniz at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In his practice, Önen transforms the tension and accumulation of painterly elements such as colour, light, movement, and space into an open-ended process—a palimpsest that can be read and interpreted a number of ways. Drawing on personal experience and art-historical references, his works stage encounters between lived reality and fiction. Themes of masculinity and queerness accompany his ongoing engagement with academic painting and authorship. Önen’s solo exhibitions include doing the work in Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2023); his works have been exhibited in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Helsin- ki (2025); G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig (2025); Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf (2025); Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen (2024); Kunstmuseum Celle (2023) and Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2022). He lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.