Melda Kamhi Kosif was born in Istanbul in 1980. Graduating from Institut Le Rosey in Geneva, she has studied Interior Design at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in the UK. Later, she has pursued her education in Painting and Drawing in Libera Academia di Belle Arte di Roma and School of Visual Arts in New York. Her oil paintings incorporate portraits, which, through the gaze of a stranger offer the observer a window into an intimate yet distant realm. Having recently started employing experimental approaches to her realist paintings, she lets the image merge from it’s usual habitat which is the canvas. She received her first award at the age of six for the Gülhane-UNESCO ‘Istanbul in My Dream’ competition, then won first place for the ADSR - Art competition between the years of 96/97 - 97/98 and The Art in Progress Award from the Mayor of Rome in 2003. Having previously exhibited her work in Istanbul, Geneva and Rome, Melda Kamhi Kosif currently lives and works in Istanbul.