Başak (Kaptan) Şiray was born in 1978 in İzmir. She graduated from Bilkent University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Fine Arts, and completed her MFA in Graphic Design. In 2003, she received DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship and studied at Münster Art Academy and pursued her artistic work in film, video and new media field. In 2004 she received postdiplome scholarship from National School of Fine Arts of Lyon and continued to work and research in contemporary art as a resident artist in ENBAL. She completed her PhD at Marmara University Faculty of Communication.
She participated in many exhibitions, video screening and festivals such as: Barcelona Loop Art Fair (2012), Nomadic Video Festival (2011),Video Patch Work: Cite the City Within You (2011), Archieve Fever, OPEN FLUX: Videofesta 10. INternational Media Festival (2011), Mind Models (2010), Video.it (2009), Truths and Mirages/ Contemporary Turkish Video Art (2008), The Mystery of Enchanted Cars (2008). Her first solo show was in 2014, titled as “Perfect Unhappiness” at Videoist in Mardin.
