Arzu Başaran was born in 1963 in Istanbul. She graduated in 1985 from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, with her first solo show taking place the following year at Berk Art Gallery in Istanbul. In 1989, Arzu Başaran received a research fellowship at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, and using a grant received from the Istanbul French Cultural Centre and Siyah Beyaz Gallery, she was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris in 2000.

Arzu Başaran has had numerous solo exhibitions, including İhlal (Violation) at Gallery Apel (Istanbul 2005) and the Diyarbakır Art Centre (Diyarbakır 2006), and recently Maduniyet – Eşikte olma hali (Subalternity – The Liminal Subjects) at the Mac Art Gallery (Istanbul 2010). She has participated in group exhibitions in Turkey, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Tunisia, and Greece, including the Face-to-Face Istanbul-Athens show at the Melina Mercouri Centre (Athens 1998), Istanbul Art Affairs at Gallery Hübner + Hübner (Frankfurt 2008), and Ateşin Düştüğü Yer (Where Fire Has Struck) for the 20th anniversary of the Human Rights Foundation at Depo (Istanbul 2011). Arzu Başaran currently lives and works in Istanbul.