34087 Istanbul
Turkey
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10am–6pm
THE PILL® was founded in 2016 by Suela J. Cennet in the historic peninsula of Istanbul, to operate as a global platform and mobile vessel for contemporary art, supporting artists through a dynamic of cosmopolitanism beyond the dialectics of center and periphery. Initially envisioned by its founder as a space for an aesthetic of friendship, the gallery’s programming is strongly inspired by the history and ideas of utopia and dystopia in modernism, with a particular focus on displacement, diaspora, feminisms, and queer aesthetics as reflected in contemporary artistic practices.
Dedicated to the most ambitious emerging artists as well as those of international stature, the gallery’s exhibitions and participation in major contemporary art fairs have been widely acclaimed by critics and trusted by the most prestigious collections. Located in an ancient generator factory, the exhibition space lends itself to constant architectural transformation and fully embraces the meanings encapsulated in the gallery’s name. In the words of Suela J. Cennet, “The Pill evokes both the relationship between truth and fiction, as in The Matrix, and the fundamental discovery of female contraception, which marked a definitive anthropological break that led to contemporary issues around the self-engineered body. Both carry an emancipation whose validity we continue to question today.”
In 2022, THE PILL® partnered with JBE Books for the publication of New Art Scales, revisiting the gallery’s first years of programming and paving the way for an ambitious publishing line in collaboration with JBE Books.