Unpromised Flowers: Nazende Afakoğlu’s Journey Through Art

Some journeys begin with a plane ticket. Others begin long before departure, with the quiet feeling that something in life is ready to change.

For Turkish visual artist Nazende Afakoğlu, that feeling eventually took her from Istanbul to Mongolia and then to Malta, where a planned one-year stay became seven years of building a home, friendships and an artistic career.

Today, those experiences form the heart of Unpromised Flowers, her first solo exhibition, which opened in New York on 23 October 2026. In an exclusive interview with Expatax Malta, she shares the personal journey behind it.

From Istanbul To Mongolia: Where The Story Began

Until 2018, Afakoğlu lived in Istanbul, working in public relations and trade marketing. Although she loved the city, something was beginning to shift.

I felt that I had reached the end of a chapter in my life and needed a new experience.

When her husband received a job offer in Mongolia, the couple decided to embrace the opportunity. Together with their cat, Hera, they moved to Ulaanbaatar, leaving behind everything familiar.

While people around her questioned the decision, Afakoğlu saw the move as an adventure.

I was so curious about what it would be like to build a life from scratch, on the other side of the world, in a completely different culture and climate.

Her curiosity extended even to Mongolia’s extreme winters. She remembers stepping outside when temperatures plunged far below zero, simply to experience the cold. The lowest she encountered was −46°C. Yet beneath the excitement of discovering a new country, another experience was gradually unfolding.

The emotional consequences of leaving home did not arrive all at once. They emerged through memories, longing and moments of uncertainty, revealing a side of migration that was more complicated than the initial adventure.

Through my own experience, I came to realize that migration isn’t just an exciting adventure. It’s also a process of emotional ups and downs.

It was during these years that art began to take on a different meaning in her life. After returning briefly to Istanbul, Afakoğlu found herself reflecting on the places and people she had left behind. She began turning her uncertainties into creative expression, gradually making more space for an artistic practice that had accompanied her since childhood.

One of the most important starting points of my artistic journey was simply a pencil and a notebook on a dining table in Mongolia.

What began at that dining table would eventually grow into a professional artistic journey, shaped by the very experiences that had taken her away from home.

When Malta Becomes Part Of The Canvas

In 2019, Afakoğlu arrived in Malte with her husband for what was supposed to be a one-year stay. Seven years later, the island has become much more than a temporary stop on her journey.

When we asked what made her stay, her answer was as simple as it was heartfelt.

Coming from a city as big as Istanbul, I never imagined I would feel so at home on such a small island.

But finding a new home does not mean leaving the old one behind. Afakoğlu speaks openly about missing her family, her culture and the life she once knew. There are moments when she feels caught between two worlds, a familiar contradiction for many who have built lives abroad. Yet Malta has given her something equally precious: close friendships that have become her chosen family and a sense of belonging she never expected to find. She is far from alone Malta’s Turkish community has grown steadily in recent years, with its own markets, restaurants and even a Turkish-language news platform

The island has also quietly made its way into her art. The colours of the Mediterranean, the textures of nature and the underwater world have influenced her paintings. Even the view from her balcony, overlooking the surroundings of the home that doubles as her studio, has become part of her visual imagination.

What began as a personal journey has gradually transformed her artistic expression, taking her beyond painting into video art and installations.

Today, art isn’t simply something I do. It’s the way I see the world, make sense of it and express myself.

For Afakoğlu, Malta is both a place to call home and a source of inspiration, woven into the art through which she continues to explore what it means to belong.

Unpromised Flowers: An Exhibition About The Journeys Within Us

New York | 23 October – 14 November 2026

Unpromised Flowers (Vadedilmemiş Çiçekler) brings together paintings, installation and video art exploring the memories, uncertainties and transformations that follow migration.

Curated by Malta-based multidisciplinary creative Kıvılcım Akay, with Senem Sekban as exhibition consultant, the exhibition is presented at Turkish House, 6th Floor, 821 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017.

Inner Journey: The Artwork That Tells Her Story

We asked Afakoğlu to choose the single work in Unpromised Flowers that best represents her migration journey.

Choosing just one artwork is quite difficult, because the works in the exhibition explore different periods, emotions and layers of my migration experience. But if I had to name one, I would choose Inner Journey.

For Afakoğlu, migration is not simply the physical act of moving from one country to another. It is a gradual transformation of identity, habits, memories and one’s relationship with the world. Inner Journey explores precisely this transformation, the uncertain process of becoming someone new while carrying the experiences of earlier lives.

The exhibition is divided into eight sections, and the one in which Inner Journey appears opens with a sentence that captures the show’s central idea:

“Migration is a journey that begins upon arrival.”

From Unpromised Flowers

Seven of the sections explore the emotional and psychological experiences that follow migration, while the opening one, Veda Prosesi (The Farewell Process), considers where the journey begins.

Passports, biometric photographs and official documents appear alongside the artist’s colourful imaginary world, placing the bureaucratic and personal realities of migration side by side. As Afakoğlu puts it, saying goodbye begins with the very first document you prepare.

For those who have experienced international relocation, the meaning is immediately recognisable. The practical arrangements may eventually end, but the personal process of adapting, remembering and redefining home continues.

Afakoğlu expresses this idea with particular clarity:

I don’t think there’s really such a thing as finally arriving. In one way or another, we’re all still on our way.

When Art Finds Its Way Into Someone Else’s Story

The meaning of Unpromised Flowers became especially clear to Afakoğlu on the exhibition’s opening day.

A visitor approached her with tears in her eyes. The woman, herself a migrant, had recognised something deeply personal in the artworks. Conversations with other visitors followed as they shared their own memories and experiences, and for Afakoğlu these exchanges became some of the most meaningful moments of the exhibition.

She had hoped that people would find connections between her artistic world and their own lives, even when their experiences differed from hers.

I believe an artwork shouldn’t be limited to the meaning the artist originally gave it. A work that comes from my own story might mean something completely different to someone else, through their own memories and emotions.

The emotional response of that visitor gave her a sense that the exhibition had achieved something beyond its physical presentation.

What I had hoped for with this exhibition was to open a door somewhere within each visitor. And that day, I felt that one of those doors had truly opened.

Although New York marks an important milestone, Afakoğlu hopes the exhibition will continue travelling. One of her ambitions is to bring Unpromised Flowers to Malta, where she has spent the past seven years developing her artistic practice and building a life.

Her story is not simply one of leaving Istanbul, discovering Mongolia or settling in Malta. It is about the ways people change through the places they inhabit, the relationships they build and the memories they carry. And perhaps that is what makes Unpromised Flowers so relevant to those who have experienced life abroad.

Home is not always a single place. Sometimes, it is something we continue creating, wherever the journey takes us.