TIRANA, Nov. 24 – After a five-day exhibition featuring Albanian painter Bujar Zajmi in his Tirana collection of oil on canvass paintings, the National Gallery of Arts has scheduled two other important events.
Bujar Zajmi’s exhibition, which will remain open until Friday, Nov. 25 will be followed by the “November 2011” collective exhibit and the Onufri visual arts competition.
The 14th edition of the November 2011 exhibition, which will be launched on Friday, Nov. 25, futures artworks by the so-called November group of painters. This group formed after 1990s consists of painters of different generations who share a common interest in painting as a genre and its continuation as a traditional art form in Albania. Some of this group’s members are also present in the permanent collection of the National Gallery; precisely in the pavilions of “Socialist Realism: 1960-1986” and “Modernist Painting and Sculpture: 1989-2001”. The exhibition is organized by the group itself and it is expects a participation of around 30 painters, exhibiting around 60 works.
The exhibition follows the “150 years of photography in Spain” which remained open from October 14 to November 20 features a selection of the most outstanding images created by Spanish photographers over the past one hundred and fifty years.
‘Onufri 2011’
The 18th edition of ‘Onufri’ visual arts competition will be one of the major events the National Arts Gallery has hosted this year. The event’s organizing committee has appointed Alban Hajdinaj of the Artistic Research and Education Unit at the National Gallery of Arts.
Last year, Gazmend Leka was announced the first prize winner of Onufri for his “Lost Paradise” painting. The painting, photography, sculpture, and installation works by Albania and Kosova artists were selected for display based on their compatibility with the curatorial concept entitled “I am ART-ist.”
The exhibition is named after Onufri, Albania’s 16th century most important icon painter whose works are on display at the iconographic museum in the southern town of Berat, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008.
In many of its previous editions, Onufri was held as international exhibition bringing together artists from all over the world.
