Born in Mesudiye in 1954, Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu completed his primary, secondary and high school education in Istanbul State Applied Fine Arts High School, Graphic Arts Department (Today Marmara University G.S.F.) between 1975-79.

He worked as an art director in an advertising agency in 1980. He started to work as a basic art education course assistant at the school he graduated from in 1981 and became an assistant professor in 1992 by taking "Sufficiency in Art". Ekşioğlu transferred to Yeditepe University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Graphic Design Department in 2006; He is still working in the same institution.

The artist, whose works have been published in nineteen different countries as well as Turkey, has made seven covers for "The New Yorker" and once for "Forbes", one of the most important magazines of the world. The artist achieved a special success with his work, which was published on the cover of "The New Yorker" in the anniversary edition of the September 11 attacks. Ekşioğlu has one of his important works, the illustration named "Erasing Osama", by Osama Bin Laden in the USA. He did it after he was killed by him and his work made a lot of noise. His illustrations have been published in “The Athlantic Monthly”, on the “OP-ED” page of “The New York Times” and in the “Book Review” supplement. Two of his works were printed as postcards (300 thousand) by “Unicef” and offered for sale around the world. The artist also made the emblem of the World Press Council Association.

Having opened a total of thirty-one solo exhibitions, two of which are abroad, the artist participated in many national and one international group exhibitions and took part in juries. Ekşioğlu, who has been working on cartoons since 1977, has received a total of 71 awards, 27 of which are international and 44 are national. The artist is also the owner of the “1998” Sedat Simavi Plastic Arts Award. The artist is a member of the Professional Graphic Designers Association, the Cartoonists Association, the Görsav Foundation, the Ekşioğlu Foundation and the Rize Foundation.

KOZA

Inspirational Stories

We talked to Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu about his life, his popular graphic works and his success story.