Zuhal Özbolat (b. 1997, Istanbul) is a London-based textile designer whose work brings material, thought and atmosphere into relation. Her interdisciplinary practice spans painting, print, digital manipulation and weaving, with the hand remaining present across each medium.
Her practice treats making as a way of accessing intuitive data, allowing what is known but not yet thought to surface through material. Her work is driven by muscle memory and free association, exploring the delicate edge between chaos and control. She approaches textiles as “thinking surfaces,” where thoughts, sensations and traces take form, randomness leads to pattern, and pattern enables thought.
Her “excavations” bring past happenings and the imminent into material presence. Making becomes a form of clairvoyance. The textile carries this data into space, allowing it to exist in its most candid form.
Education
MA Textiles, Royal College of Art (2024-2025)
Graduate Diploma Art & Design Royal College of Art (2023-2024)
BA Interior Architecture, Yeditepe University (2016 - 2022)
BA Graphic Design, Yeditepe University (2015)
Koshirakura Landscape Workshop, Architectural Association School of Architecture, Koshirakura, Japan (2025)
Experience
Studio Production Assistant, Rhizomatic London (2026)
Exhibition Production Assistant, Objects Beautiful Exhibition, Yael Reisner Studio, London (2023)
Interior Architecture Intern, Cisimdesign, Istanbul (2019)
Exhibitions & Residencies
Ós Textile Residency, Icelandic Textile Center, Blönduós, Iceland (2026)
August in Ós: Ós Textile Residency Group Exhibition
Hillebrandtshús, Blönduós, Iceland (2026)
Ravel: Ós Textile Residency Group Exhibition
Hillebrandtshús, Blönduós, Iceland (2026)
Tactile Landscapes
Battersea, London (2025)
TEKHNE: Group Exhibition
Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College of Art (2025)