Baker Artist Portfolios

Defne Aksoy (b. 1999) is a multidisciplinary artist from İzmir, Turkey. Through metalwork, installation, poetry, and video, she explores questions of selfhood, consciousness, and interconnectedness—between living organisms, inert matter, and larger systems. 

She sees materials as intelligent networks:  Materials, unlike humans, don't cling to their identity. They surrender to transformation. The steel is not attached to its self. Through processes of hammering, welding, and casting; it bends, coils, and blisters. With her work, she aims to spark a sense of wonder and curiosity, and challenge Western notions of power, individuality, and hierarchy. 

Defne received her BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2023. Her first public installation, Street Machine, was installed at the corner of North Ave and Maryland Ave as part of Baltimore DOT’s Vision Zero Initiative. She has co-devised and performed in the experimental play Small Wins with the AYTWIT Collective and performed in Abigail DeVille’s Dark Matters at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. She currently works as a Conservation Technician at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where she engages closely with material preservation, decay, and care.