Ömer Faruk Dere

About Artist

He was born in 1973 in Istanbul. After he finished primary, secondary and high schools in Istanbul, he started studying in Theology Faculty of Marmara University and graduated in 1997. In the same university, he completed his mastership of Turkish-Islam art education by preparing his theses named “Hafız Osman Efendi and his own style in calligraphy art” in 2001.

During his university and mastership periods, he took private courses from the head teachers in the branches of art and art history of the Turkey. He still takes place in art activities which he started in his university years.

In 1996, he started his education of Ebru art lectured by Hikmet Barutçugil and continued on it till 1998. He started taking course from Khattat Mehmet Özçay whom he met in 1996 and learned Sulus and naskh writing from him. He also learned calligraphy from Savaş Çevik. He learned a lot about our classical art from Professor Uğur Derman. His productions took place in twenty-four international and national exhibitions the most important of which was in the exhibition of International Ebru Congress in 1997, the exhibition of 2010 AKB Agency called “the Masters of Our Day” and five individual exhibitions. He has also productions in special collections inside and outside of the country. He also deals with Ebru and calligraphy arts; Ahar and paper painting, murakka expention and the restoration of old productions which are the side branches of calligraphy in his workplace. 

For his researches, he studied in Presedential Ottoman Archives and Topkapı Palace Archive. He worked as an expert of Turk-Islam arts in Sakıp Sabancı Museum of Sabancı University and Haluk Perk Museum. He still lectures as Ebru and calligraphy arts in IBB art and career education courses İSMEK where he has been working for the last ten years. He is also the head of the communities of these branches and gives Khat (Arabic calligraphy) courses in two centres in Istanbul and Izmir.

He as an edeucator and artist, continued his ebru work in a project of IBB Mayor called Ebru and rehabilitation for adapting handicapped people into the society and for the prisoners in Kartal Execution Prison of an İSMEK organization. With his own team, he also carried out the projects called “cooked on the fire and ended in the water/Akkase Ebrus from our tile art in classical era, Ebrus donating calligraphy/replication in ebru art, stones coming to earth in water/Akkase ebrus from Ottoman gravestone inscriptions and Celi ebrus. He organised the exhibitions of calligraphy with the master Ethem Çalışkan in 2012 and the exhibition of ebru called “A Bunch from the Hidden Heaven.” He performed the applicable art activities in IBB stand throughout the Ramadhan month in 2011 and 2012.

He carried out the exhibition project of wavy ebru called “I ran forward but then stopped” with his team consisting of twenty-four persons in february 2013. He carried out ebru, calligraphy and demonstration exhibitions in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordon, Uganda, Syria, Ukrein, Singapor, B&H, Morocco, Netherlands, Qatar, Norway and Spain. He also has been jory in art competitions and being organised for the first time in Turkey, he educated the seminars of reading the Ottoman gravestones in historical Eyupsultan Sibyan School Hazires which attracted much attention. He also added new motives to this branch with the full new style motives in ebru art. 

He has 19 published scientific articles about Turk-Islam arts and history, a lot of art interviews and many radio and Tv programms. The artist who knows english and arabic has three children.

His published books:

1. Hattat Hâfız Osman Efendi (The Calligrapher Hafız Osman Efendi) 

2. Hat ve Tezhip Sanatı, Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları (Calligraphy and İllumination Art)

3. Ebrû Sanatı -Tarihçe, Malzeme, Uygulama (Turkish Ebru Art)

4. Devlet-i Aliyye’den Günümüze Ebrû Sanatı (Turkish Ebru Art from Ottoman Era to Present)

5. Eyüpsultanda Taşa İşlenen Medeniyet (The Civilization Engraving on The Stones in Eyupsultan)

6. Hat Sanatı Nesih Yazı Metodu (The Islamic Calligraphy, Naskh Writing Method)

7. Hat Sanatı Sülüs Yazı Metodu (The Islamic Calligraphy, Sulus Writing Method)

8. Kaligrafi Sanatı (The Latin Calligraphy Art)

9. Kaligrafi Çalışma Defteri (Calligraphy Practice Book)