TIRANA, Dec. 8 – Albanian artist Arben Golemi has opened his 23rd solo exhibition in a show exploring visual architecture between temptation and expressionism.
“Arben Golemi’s painting, re-brought in this new visual adventure at the FAB art gallery facilities, invites the public to explore the personal philosophy known as “Saper Vedere L’Artittetura” (How to Look at Architecture),” says Ermir Hoxha, the exhibition’s curator.
“Split on his academic background between architecture and painting, Golemi re-conveys the reading of architectonic structure as a painter since his beginnings as a professional artist,” he adds.
His topics cover the traditional structure of his hometown of Berat, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southwestern Albania, cultural heritage and the baroque style of the Louvre Museum.
Born in Berat and having studied both architecture and fine arts, Golemi, 62, has participated in many personal and collective painting exhibitions in Albania and around the world.
Inspired by the medieval city of Berat, where he grew up, Golemi’s acrylics on canvas are architectonic abstractions that convey a simultaneous sense of history and immediacy. He accomplishes this impressive synthesis through a style that could be compared, for its blunt graphic power, to that of the American abstract expressionist Franz Kline. One of the main differences between them, however, is that while Kline’s best work was monochromatic -the famous black and white abstractions of the late 40s and early 50s – Golemi is a subtle and engaging colorist, even when he too chooses to work in monochromes.
His “Different” exhibition will remain open at Tirana’s FAB gallery of the University of Arts until December 10.
