Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

“You’re only recommending air-conditioned places, aren’t you?” asked a friend as I put the finishing touches on this issue. Guilty as charged. With the city shimmering under high-summer heat, we’re steering readers toward cooler pleasures: museum halls lined with ceramics, shaded galleries and enough visual intrigue to rival a chilled bowl of “hoshaf,” the fruit compote.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

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1. Leading the week: Extraordinary Minas

Ceramics Plate c. 1910- 1915, by Minas Avramidis. (Courtesy of Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation)

The Pera Museum, which has an impressive collection of Kutahya ceramics on permanent display on the first floor, now helps us discover a quietly dazzling Armenian ceramics master who signed his name only as Minas. No last name needed; though archivists will remind you it's Avramidis. His work speaks for itself: vivid, humorous, precise, and unmistakably his.

Minas Avramidis worked in early 20th-century Kutahya, long after Iznik's kilns cooled but before global capital flattened local craft. He turned humble glazed earthenware into narrative tableaux: a Christian martyr haloed by florals; a moustachioed man raising a pistol in theatrical despair.

Curator Yavuz Selim Guler places Avramidis not just as a technician, but as a visual storyteller who freely reinterpreted classical motifs and drew inspiration from stone prints, photography and Christian legend. His "Genovefa" plate series stands out for both aesthetic and narrative sophistication. Produced........

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