Gül Ilgaz was born in 1962 in Istanbul. In 1988, she graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. She has attended several art workshops in the United States and in 2004 she participated in the Banff Centre's Informal Architecture Residency program. Gül Ilgaz has taught studio art at the Robert College of Istanbul for fourteen years and contemporary art theory at the Istanbul University of Commerce since 2007. Gül Ilgaz has participated in group exhibitions in Turkey as well as in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Macedonia, China, England, France, Italy, Belgium, Canada, and Germany, including the Istanbul Next Wave exhibition at the Akademie der Künste (Berlin 2009), the 2010 Istanbul Contemporary Art Fair, and Uluorta (Openly) at Antrepo 5 for Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture. Her recent solo exhibition Before it Gets Dark opened at the Daire Art Gallery (Istanbul 2010).

Working as a social-activist artist, Gül Ilgaz has also created an International Artist Residency Program and Public Art Project in a village in Turkey. She currently lives and works in Istanbul.