Zeta Gallery presents the personal exhibition of artist Leonard Qylafi. A series of fourteen oil paintings entitled Morphological Variations is exhibited in the premises of the gallery. This exhibition will be open for the visitors from May 9 – June 11, 2022, Tirana.
Morphological Variations is a continuous cycle of the artist from 2017 to 2021, which focuses on the structural nature of digital images, delving further into the way they are displayed, interpreted, actualized or transmitted. The subject of this series of paintings derives from the term “Morphology”; a discipline which deals with the study of specific shape, structure and features in living organisms. In its sequel, the artist incorporates screens as supporting information in order to retrieve some parts of the images that appear in them and to detach them from the shapes and structures they carry.
The colorful paintings are exhibited throughout the gallery, and although they are so similar to each other, they are divided into three groups: paintings # 2; # 5; # 10; # 11; # 12, are realized in primary color tones with simplified structure, with conspicuous colors and light they transform the subject into a completely abstract vision. While in paintings # 1; # 3; # 4; # 6; # 7; # 8, the artist highlights the bright shapes by painting the black background around them. Also the explosion of color is the manifestation of his analysis, and we notice this in paintings # 13 and # 14.
Through his creativity, Leonard Qylafi integrates between the real and the virtual and raises questions about the existence of these images which display unidentifiable shapes. They navigate through the repetitive rhythm past the defined nature of – the digital – then moving into the space of differently sized frames.
*Leonard Qylafi (b. 1980) is an Albanian visual artist graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana. His practice explores several media such as: painting, video, photography and music.
Deeply connected to personal experience, Leonard’s works of art are a process of research and mediation between subjects and media. Using knowledge and skills, the artist produces new stories through the elaboration of both the aesthetics and the content of the subjects he uses as a base material for his projects.
Leonard has been actively present in the local and international art scene since his graduation. He represented Albania in the 57th edition of the Venice Biennale (2017), and in recent years his works have been exhibited in: NiMAC Museum Cyprus (2018), MuCEM, Marseille, Izolyatsia, Kiev (2016); October 55 Salon, Belgrade (2014); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2012); MODEM Center for Contemporary and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Hungary (2011); and the International Biennial of Contemporary Art TICAB-Tirana (2009) among others. He has been part of several residential programs such as: NIFCA-Nordic Institute of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; ISCP New York, USA; KKA-KulturKontakt, Austria and the Institute for Contemporary Art T.I.C.A-Tirana. He won the Ardhje Award for Young Albanian Artists in 2008. He lives and works in Tirana, Albania.
