Artist: Lui Shtini
Exhibition title: Fused
Venue: LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Kosovo
Date: September 12 – November 10, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina
The paintings in Lui Shtini’s solo-exhibition “Fused” are a selection of works from 2015 that mark the beginning of the artist’s exploration of a collision of two entities within a horizontal composition. This is the first time this series of paintings are exhibited.
Shtini’s current paintings investigate the tension between the struggle of two entities, produc-ing an energy that is at once menacing, corporeal and romantic. The fusion of two forms expands Shtini’s earlier works which were focused on the single character, allowing for a more complex relationship between surface, material and medium.
Compositionally they mark a shift away from a central, vertical format and instead extend hori-zontally from one edge to another, engaging the entire plane of the painting and giving the edges a more active position. Shtini creates a clash between two forms, acknowledging a pres-sure, fusion, and movement that is conceived by the re- lationship between two visceral bodies. There is something prescient about Shtini’s shift in 2015 to these works about dualing forms. They move away from the individual and issues of alienation and misinterpretation, and instead point towards the need for a more critical mass.
Lui Shtini (b. 1978 Kavaje, Albania) studied at the Academy of Arts in Tirana, Albania from 1997 to 2000 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Shtini has held solo exhibitions at Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago (2017, 2014), Kate Werble Gal-lery, New York (2016, 2013), Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles (2015), and Van de Weghe Fine Art, New York (2013, 2009). His work has been exhibited at ven- ues including Silberkuppe, Berlin, Bureau, New York, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, and Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He was granted a NYFA Painting Fellowship in 2010 and was a 2014–2015 re-cipient of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program.
Lui Shtini, Fused, 2018, exhibition view, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Photo: Lule Bagta. All images courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda
Lui Shtini, Fused, 2018, exhibition view, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Photo: Lule Bagta. All images courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda
Lui Shtini, Fused, 2018, exhibition view, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Photo: Lule Bagta. All images courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda
Lui Shtini, Fused, 2018, exhibition view, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Photo: Lule Bagta. All images courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda
Lui Shtini, Fused, 2018, exhibition view, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Photo: Lule Bagta. All images courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda
Lui Shtini, Fused, 2018, exhibition view, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Photo: Lule Bagta. All images courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda
Lui Shtini, I.L., 2015, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm), photo: Elisabeth Bernstein. Courtesy of Kate Werble Gallery, New York and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina
Lui Shtini, A.H., 2015, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm), photo: Elisabeth Bernstein. Courtesy of Kate Werble Gallery, New York and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina
Lui Shtini, E.E., 2015, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm), photo: Elisabeth Bernstein. Courtesy of Kate Werble Gallery, New York and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina
Lui Shtini, O.B., 2015, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm), photo: Elisabeth Bernstein. Courtesy of Kate Werble Gallery, New York and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina
Lui Shtini, Z.L., 2015, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm), photo: Elisabeth Bernstein. Courtesy of Kate Werble Gallery, New York and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina