Canada-based artist back home with solo exhibition
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- “What makes my works concrete is not the thought that I am an artist, but being humble to great word of ART, humble in doubts and fragile like a child," says Gorishti
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TIRANA, Dec. 2 - Canada-based Albanian actor and artist is back home with a solo exhibition featuring 70 selected paintings created during the past 25 years of Albania's transition after the collapse of communist regime.
The exhibition which opened at the National Art Gallery in Tirana on Nov. 29 on Albania's 71st anniversary of liberation from the Nazi-fascist occupation, is showcasing Gorishti, mostly known as a filmmaker and actor, in a series of paintings and graphs including landscapes, portraits, compositions and mixed media.
“What makes my works concrete is not the thought that I am an artist, but being humble to great word of ART, humble in doubts and fragile like a child," says Gorishti.
“Gorishti's creations are his inner individuality, which unfolds like a book page, a sentence or word written by a completely free hand. It seems that without being planned, the concerns, losses and 'darkness' he has experienced as a man have been translated into these works where the truth, light and optimism are felt,” says Ylli Drishti, the curator of this exhibition which will remain open until December 9
The inner tension accompanying him, the enigma and his non-acknowledgement as an artist characterize Gorishti even as an actor and director, adds the curator.
Gorishti, 53, has been a defining presence in Albanian cinema since 1983, when he won Best Actor for his performance in the film Dora e Ngrohte (The Warm Hand). Over the past three decades, he has worked with Albania's most influential directors, playing lead roles in movies that have brought Albanian filmmaking to international attention, including Slogans (2001 - New Talent Award, Cannes), Father and Godfather (2007 - Special Mention, Med Film Fest), and Bota (2014, Albania's entry for the 2016 Oscars). Since 2006, he has played in North American productions as well, most recently Diego Star (2013) and The Fixer (2014).
In the 1990s, Gorishti also established himself as an artist and photographer. The National Art Gallery of Albania awarded him its first photography award in 1998. He has exhibited in solo and group shows in Europe and North America, and was featured in open 2003 ‘arte & cinema’ in Venice. Born in Albania, he now lives in Montreal, Canada, where he has shown at Galerie Luz, Galerie Pangà©e, and Galerie Rye. In 2013, Zenit Art Gallery in Tirana presented a retrospective of his works on paper.
In 2013, Gorishti published a collection of short stories, Dyert (Doors). He adapted one of the stories, "The Beast," into the screenplay for Breath, a short film he directed in 2015. A second story from the collection is the basis for a feature-length screenplay currently in development.
