Born in Istanbul, Irmak Şahinoğlu moved to Bodrum in the late 1990s, where she spent her childhood and youth. After completing her undergraduate studies in Media and Communication Systems at Istanbul Bilgi University, she worked for 13 years as a writer, editor, literary critic, project editor, and content director in the fields of communication, culture, arts, and literature. At the same time, she continued her individual writing practice, with her literary reviews, author portraits, and short stories published in various print and digital platforms.

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Coming from an artistic family, Şahinoğlu began working as the assistant and manager of her father, a painter, from an early age. After receiving further education in “Art History” and “Museology” at Istanbul Bilgi University and “Modern Art & Ideas” at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), she turned her focus toward combining writing and literature with visual art. In 2021, she established her own studio in Bodrum and began producing her own works.

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Şahinoğlu has so far produced three series of works.

Her first series, Silent Poetry / Sessiz Şiir, deconstructed words into dots and lines, stripping them of literal meaning to create ideograms that explored silence and the state of meaninglessness. A selection from this series was exhibited in her first group exhibition, Sözün Bittiği Yer (End of The Words), at Savra Bodrum in 2022.

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In her second series, Unspoken / Konuşmadıklarımız, she extended the “silent poems” by pairing them with single-sentence texts. Here, she invited viewers to confront what remains unsaid and unexpressed, encouraging them to find meaning beyond the meaningless by mirroring themselves in the text. This series was presented in her first solo exhibition, Konuşmadıklarımız (Unspoken), at Karabatak Gallery in Anthaven Bodrum in 2024. Works from this series were also exhibited in the Pozzo Art Party group exhibition at Vamos Bodrum.

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Her most recent series, Bateu, takes its title from the Portuguese word meaning “hit” or “struck,” used metaphorically to describe a sudden resonance, a familiar emotional encounter, or a fleeting moment of awareness. In this series, Şahinoğlu pursues those short yet intense moments when life says “now,” aiming to reconnect viewers with ineffable feelings that echo through their own experiences. Each work consists of a single sentence painted in black acrylic on white canvas, combining poetic minimalism with the format of museum-style information cards. Instead of providing an image, the works prompt viewers to visualize their own, drawing upon personal memory and emotional perception. The series unfolds as a sequence of nine works accompanied by short texts, creating a narrative arc that guides the audience from beginning to end, a journey in which Şahinoğlu offers only hints, leaving the ultimate meaning to be found within the viewer themselves. This body of work was exhibited in her second solo exhibition, Bateu, between July 16–29, 2025, at the Ottoman Shipyard District Governorship Art Gallery in Milta Bodrum Marina.