İrem Günaydın was born in 1989, Istanbul. She holds a Foundation diploma from Chelsea College of Art and Design (2011) and her BA in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins, London (2014).
İrem Günaydın’s practice revolves around her interest in being an artist in an ontological sense. Her work seeks to perforate the tightly knit textures of art history, the autonomy of the self, and the fetish of authenticity and originality. This attitude allows the artist to think without establishing a new center, an original, or a singular truth. In her written works, she delves into the notion of the self as the manifestation of an artist and scrutinizes the range of potential symptoms that may emerge, from mild to severe. Through her explorations, she sheds light on the diagnosis of the "I" and its implications for artistic expression. Therefore, writing becomes a means to celebrate her artistic symptoms. In her written works, Gunaydin splits herself into multiples that become spectators of one another and engage in conversations, addressing the economic realities of life as an artist and issues surrounding the recognition of art-making as labor. She explores the relationship between text and image, looking into how words and images circulate between discursive and pictorial realms investigating the objecthood of language and the grammar of images. Her practice is often generated through writing and unfolds as installations that gather prints and sculptural elements, with writing serving as a fulcrum. She draws inspiration from art history, philosophy, and literature, deconstructing the canon with minor narratives and contemporary popular media.