Çigdem Yapanar was born in Istanbul. She has started working sculpture in 1992 at Irfan Korkmazlar Studio. She attended Sakine Cil’s Atelier at Bogazici University and worked ceramics. Later at Marmara University she worked carving with educator Ziyatin Nuriev. Since 2000 she has been working at her own atelier.
Yapanar works with various materials including bronze, glass, brass sheet and wood and they are mostly in form of human figures.