Eltjon Valle (born 1984 in Qyteti Stalin,

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

), is an artist. He lives and works in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Life and career

Since the early 2000s when he moved to study art, at the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera ("academy of fine arts of Brera"), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca ...

. He finished his bachelor's degree in 2007, and a master's degree in fine arts in 2009. In

he became one of the best known artists of his generation, since he was a student. His medium was

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

, and he's been using it in his although naturalistic representation. Thanks to his architectural landscapes, his portraits and his site specific interventions, he is one of the actually active artists living in this city.

The early times

The beginnings of Valle as a painter, belong to his hometown, which under the communism was an industrial basement of petrol. This element, oil, is the first one that Valle started painting with, during his early childhood. Valle has kept it on by then, as a common denominator to some of his most important series of paintings. Such as the series of the cursed writers of the 20th century (started in 2006). William Burroughs

Or the series of flowers (2012). Or the series of the homages he pays to fashion. One of his most representative series of works are the "land pieces", actually pieces of polluted land he collects in the country of Marinz (Al), and engraces with butterflies. Petrol is one of the main factors of global changes that regard development and pollution, and Valle through his paintings and other types of work, keeps investigating the negative and 'positive' effect of this exploitation on the everyday life, and its consequences on the living and perception of modern landscape. He has participated to some collectives and also to some personal exhibitions.

The researches

The main project of Valle in this context is the Marinz Project. This is a site specific based one. Marinz is a small country close to that industrial city where Valle grew. In the uncontaminated communist Albania, it was the polluted exclusion. Since the year 2012 the artist has been painting polluted flowers of Marinz, while taking its land pieces to transform them into art works, by drying and adorning them, acclimating and taming them, making them so to say, domestic. Valle seems to sustain that everything is nature, even pollution. That's why, he tries to witness that a new beauty appeared in our time, the polluted one.

Exhibitions and participation

Some of his main exhibitions have been: *2014: "All About These... Ladies and Gentlemen", curated by Fani Zguro, Gallery on The Move in collaboration with Co-Pilot, Istanbul (Turkey), "New Contemporaries", Gallery On The Move, Art Cologne (Germany) *2013: "Bridge Country", Gallery On The Move, ViennaFair (Austria), "Established", Gallery On The Move, MiArt, Fiera di Milano (Italy), "New Entries", Gallery On The Move, Artissima, Turin (Italy), "Make It Easy Make It Porn", curated by Fani Zguro, Gallery On The Move in collaboration with Casa Tres Patios, Medellin (Colombia), "The Ice Palace", Nuova Galleria Morone, Pulse, Miami (USA), "WonderfulW", Galleria Maurizio Caldirola, Monza (Italy) *2013: "Galleria Morone", Pulse, Miami (USA), "Gallery On The Move", MiArt, Milan (Italy), "Make It Easy Make It Porn", Casa Tres Patios, Medellin (Colombia), "Gallery On The Move", Vienna Art Fair, Vienna (Austria) *2011: "Geopathies", Commissioner Parid Teferici, Curator Riccardo Caldura, Albanian Pavilion, The 54th International Art Exhibition

La Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

(Italy), "Talk", Fondazione Bevilaqua di Massa, Venezia (Italy) *2009: “Così vicina. Così lontana. Arte in Albania Prima e Dopo il 1990”, curators Matteo Fochessati, Rubens Shima, Sandra Solimano, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genoa (Italy), “Video Art-It's Liquid”, NCCA, Moscow (Russia) *2008: “Do you know where the paradoxes blossom”, curator Riccardo Caldura, The 15th International Onufri Prize, “Video Art & Architecture”, Micro Museum, New York (USA), “Marinz”, curator Francesco Poli, Rubens Shima, The National Gallery of Arts Tirana (Albania) *2007: “Betrayal in Art”, curator Ervin Hatibi, Rubens Shima, The 14th International Onufri Prize, The National Gallery of Arts Tirana (Albania), “Petrol Pax”, curator Rubens Shima, Albanian Pavilion/OFF, La 52 Edizione della Biennale di Venezia (Italy) *2006 “People & Places”, Leonardo Milan Gallery (Italy)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Valle, Eltjon Albanian painters Albanian artists 1984 births Living people People from Kuçovë Brera Academy alumni