”Garden of the Gods” Promenade Gallery

TIRANA, July 27 – Alkan Nallabni’s “Garden Of The Gods” continues to be successfully displayed at the Promenade Gallery of the southern city of Vlora, which is in its peak tourist season. Curated by Artan Shabani, in collaboration with The Promenade Gallery, the exhibition brings drawing and photographs propelled by the artist’s memories rooted in his Albanian heritage, and transfigured by his life as an immigrant. It will remain open until August 13. “Images come to me layer upon layer, as a complex puzzle. Brimming with optimism, the drawings in this exhibition extend beyond experiments in composition to encompass psychological studies of my themes, infused with the energy of social transformation and public upheaval. Vis-a-vis the painterly process, drawing functions for me as a vital mode of understanding the possibility and durability of my subjects. Often, as I work I try to fix an action, but as I seek to record it, the constant interplay between the figures and landscape remains in motion, and my original intention in the drawing shifts as I balance the energies moving across the paper.” The photographs in this exhibition were developed in places abandoned by humans, recaptured by nature exposing all her magical depth. “Often, when the intensity of life becomes overwhelming, I return to shoot more photographs in these same places, finding through this repetition moments of peace and silence,” says the artist. Alkan Nallbani was born in 1971, Berat, Albania. He finished the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana and continued his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy and the Corcoran College of Art and Design, U.S.A. He has had numerous exhibitions in Albania, Italy and the United States. He lives and works in New York and Florence. His work was included in the Harnett Biennial in 2010 and Prague Biennial in 2009.