CHANGE WITH THE RHYTHM
An online exhibition of artworks by Endri Kosturi
"I want to bring to the viewer the performance aspect of my paintings - their own musicality to be precise. While each painting was created, I was hearing a specific tune; at times music helps me to elevate my creativity. I want the viewer to experience the original musical moment of creation (the beginning) of each painting, yet also to experience the final finished work visually (the end)".
Kosturi’s multi-faceted and introspective canvases delicately blend recognisable figurative elements such as the sea with an abstract sensibility that is unique to the artist. Each of the large sized canvases treat the viewer with a brightened set of tonalities; indeed they are imbued with natural luminescence stemming from a purposefully delicate use of yellow found in various forms throughout each of the images. Collectively, the works interact together to light up the gallery space.
The artworks were previously shown in an exhibition at the Oaktree & Tiger Gallery Space in South Kensington, shown in an office space in Farringdon, City of London, then on display in a Knightsbridge house and now presented in a new online exhibition here.
The catalogue is now available here.
Kosturi’s multi-faceted and introspective canvases delicately blend recognisable figurative elements such as the sea with an abstract sensibility that is unique to the artist. Each of the large sized canvases treat the viewer with a brightened set of tonalities; indeed they are imbued with natural luminescence stemming from a purposefully delicate use of yellow found in various forms throughout each of the images. Collectively, the works interact together to light up the gallery space.
The artworks were previously shown in an exhibition at the Oaktree & Tiger Gallery Space in South Kensington, shown in an office space in Farringdon, City of London, then on display in a Knightsbridge house and now presented in a new online exhibition here.
The catalogue is now available here.
Salut d'Amour
140 x 160cm Raw Pigment, Limestone, Quartz on Canvas |
The pictures are multilayered, gritty in texture. In each case, the image appears as in one layer of space – there is no illusion of space, no recession, no spatial depth. They are all surface; shallow space. Part of the painting is campitura – an almost monochrome area of colour, created by the overlapping of the layers. The act of writing, also usually so explicit in Kosturi’s work, is not the focus here – or at least, is not read as such. In this series any hand-writing is more like that made in the sand, sometimes partly washed away. ‘A painting is like a dream’, he says, capturing the essence of what is layered and elusive and subconscious. ‘Salut d’Amour’, painted in the morning, refers to when the sun kisses you and warms your skin and describes the point between memory and the moment. The layers on the painting are literally still peeling away, like old manuscript pages, veiling then revealing messages we cannot quite recognize or translate.
|
|
His painting ‘Rainbow of Hope’, (painted while listening to Steve Reich’s ‘Violin Phase’) – is a more conscious representation of this subject. While painting, he is thinking of the port of Trieste, of being a child of the sea. This picture started, literally, with a rainbow – stripes of almost neon, rainbow colours dripped vertically down the left hand side of the canvas. In a video of its making, early stages of the painting reveal bold, clearly defined areas of colour and decisive mark-making. As the picture develops, it becomes more coherent overall, more of a surface impression of colour and texture. It is the graphic realization of the regenerative force, painted intuitively rather than formally. ‘The only conscious moment (of the process),’ says the artist, ‘is when I press the painting’ – by which he means the point when he takes off layers, by pressing the wet picture against and transferring these to another unstretched canvas.
|
Rainbow of Hope
140 x 160cm Raw Pigment, Limestone, Quartz on Canvas |
Green Ray
140 x 160cm Raw Pigment, Limestone, Quartz on Canvas |
Brightness is coupled with the process of layering and philosophical inquiry. It represents a means of illumination rather than a descriptive mechanism. What does this journey through light stand for? Where should we place our emphasis, to please a sensorial perspective − our vision of light − or to uncover what light does to us?
Nevertheless, the dynamic interplay of Kosturi’s brush strokes and scrawls is not to be taken lightly. The raw abandonment of the painter’s scribbling recalls those of another modernist master, Cy Twombly who, like Kosturi, spent a long portion of his life in Italy. Take, for example, the poetic and synaesthetic formants of 'Green Ray'. The work’s title refers the optical phenomenon that occurs every day for a second at dawn and sunset, where the observer witnesses a single green flicker. This in turn is presented through the calligraphic scratches across the work’s surface which reveal lemon green hues of light. |
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Endri Kosturi was born in Tirana in 1980. He has lived and worked in London since 2003 at his studio in Hackney.
Raised in an artistic family, Endri honed his talents as a figurative painter, perfecting his technical ability as a still life and portrait painter before moving towards abstraction. Painting in a non-representational manner allows Endri to focus on the expressive capabilities of light and gesture. His emotive and highly gestural practice examines both the transience of existence and the entropic flows of energy that govern nature.
Since 2010, Endri has devoted himself to exploring and stretching the capabilities of colour through four multifaceted and stylistically interconnected series: “U W” (2010), “Light Within the Shadows” (2011), “Sealight” (2012), “O” (2013/2014). Unwiped Windows and Light Within the Shadows dealt directly with the practice of calligraphy and verbal communication with the artist inscribing words through the verso of the canvases. Since then, Kosturi has gradually limited his use of written language, preferring instead to emphasise the universal and existential properties of painting. The recently completed “O” suite focuses on the extrinsic and symbolic nature of its materials. The use of marble, quartz, and limestone achieves a visible granularity and luminescence. Yet, at the same time the individual appearance of the pigment and circular forms inspire the viewer to contemplate the infinite.
Complementing his work as a painter, Kosturi has written poetry in Italian and English and has been featured in collaborative video projects that document his action painting and showcase his process. In 2012 he create the stage design for a performance of Victor Ullman’s “The Emperor of Atlantis” that was broadcasted worldwide from a former concentration camp.
Endri Kosturi has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and his work can be found in private collections in Italy, France, Austria, Germany, UK, USA, Albania, Russia and Hong Kong.
Click here for the artists CV...
Raised in an artistic family, Endri honed his talents as a figurative painter, perfecting his technical ability as a still life and portrait painter before moving towards abstraction. Painting in a non-representational manner allows Endri to focus on the expressive capabilities of light and gesture. His emotive and highly gestural practice examines both the transience of existence and the entropic flows of energy that govern nature.
Since 2010, Endri has devoted himself to exploring and stretching the capabilities of colour through four multifaceted and stylistically interconnected series: “U W” (2010), “Light Within the Shadows” (2011), “Sealight” (2012), “O” (2013/2014). Unwiped Windows and Light Within the Shadows dealt directly with the practice of calligraphy and verbal communication with the artist inscribing words through the verso of the canvases. Since then, Kosturi has gradually limited his use of written language, preferring instead to emphasise the universal and existential properties of painting. The recently completed “O” suite focuses on the extrinsic and symbolic nature of its materials. The use of marble, quartz, and limestone achieves a visible granularity and luminescence. Yet, at the same time the individual appearance of the pigment and circular forms inspire the viewer to contemplate the infinite.
Complementing his work as a painter, Kosturi has written poetry in Italian and English and has been featured in collaborative video projects that document his action painting and showcase his process. In 2012 he create the stage design for a performance of Victor Ullman’s “The Emperor of Atlantis” that was broadcasted worldwide from a former concentration camp.
Endri Kosturi has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and his work can be found in private collections in Italy, France, Austria, Germany, UK, USA, Albania, Russia and Hong Kong.
Click here for the artists CV...
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Oaktree & Tiger are an art gallery, art consultant and art projects team based in South Kensington, London, that specialise in emerging artists with the core vision of launching, building and supporting artists' careers via innovative projects, events, promotion and advisory services.
We also source and advise on art for private clients and corporates, and offer art rental agreements and investment, as a way to support up and coming talent while giving you flexibility to periodically change the collection to suit your requirements.
See more at www.oaktreeandtiger.com
We also source and advise on art for private clients and corporates, and offer art rental agreements and investment, as a way to support up and coming talent while giving you flexibility to periodically change the collection to suit your requirements.
See more at www.oaktreeandtiger.com
SEE MORE...
|
Preview video of Endri's next collection...
|
Selection of photos from projects...
|