Featuring a brand-new body of work created exclusively for this show, Korini continues to ‘explore the manner in which forms are created and how their cultural backgrounds and social contexts shape them. Korini’s canvasses are bold geometric explorations of shape, line, and colour. Evoking turn-of-the-century art movements such as Constructivism, Modernism and Suprematism, Genti’s works may remind the viewer of imagined eastern bloc architecture; these are monolithic structures comprised of impossible shapes and geometric forms that mirror early 20th century utopian ideals. He takes these former authoritarian designs of society and its aesthetics and translates them into a democratic vernacular language. Many of the structures that Korini depicts seem impossible to recreate on all but the two-dimensional plane. Unlike some of the Modernist works that inspire him, Korini imbues his paintings with a unique sense of forceful dynamism and divergent dimensionality through his use of colour.

The architecture of Albania’s capital Tirana is primary inspiration and source behind Korini’s work. His abstractions appear to be figurative while remaining abstract. They bear an uncanny resemblance to architecture, while being painterly in essence. They hint at the presence of material objects while simultaneously destroying the construction of space that can potentially contain an object within it. New formations emerge as a symptomatology for the rapidly evolving ideologies. Under the communist totalitarian regime architecture imposed a certain code of unification. In the age of neoliberal freedom the ideological idiom has been hijacked by capital and has found new forms of expressions in the domain of architecture. Decorative aspects of buildings, urban spaces and the new architecture itself are now conceived of as a visual facet of the larger language of expression, which is intrinsically connected to the imaginary dimension of power (its dream-space or virtual space). Korini’s examination of this trend reverberates throughout his works from inception to completion, he builds upon the composition with cumulative layers of color that mirror the ever-changing nature of social, political, and economic landscapes.

Providing the bulk of this show will be new works from his ‘Structure’ series. These newer works are markedly less polished, flatter, and somewhat less representational than his previous offerings. In many ways, Korini’s oeuvre has evolved with the ever-changing political climate. With contemporary world politics seeming tumultuous at best, the forms that Genti has depicted have become less probable, unsure of their own capability as freestanding structures. Some seem certain to topple at any given moment, whilst others use inverted senses of perspective that confuse the eye. Korini’s painterly process begins with drafting digital mock-ups using an iPad. His overarching concept of manipulating form through this digital process is continued here, and raises the question of how the democratisation of architecture design, through the availability of computer aided technology, has allowed the development of a new visual language.

Genti Korini (b. 1979) holds an MFA in painting from the University of Arts in Tiran, Albania (2002) and has also studied at the University of the Art and Design from Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Korini has exhibited extensively including the following solo exhibitions; Inside My Walls I See Yours (2015) at Martin Asbaek Gallery in Copenhagen; The Object and Its Background (2014) with Jecza Gallery in Romania and Ephemeral Structures (2013) at the National Gallery of Art in Tirana. Group exhibitions include Homage - Ideal or Pattern? (2016) at Knoll Gallery in Vienna, Shape of Time - Future of Nostalgia (2016), National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest; Art Encounters Biennale (2015) in Timisoara, Mona (2015) at 68 Projects in Berlin; Fragile Sense of Hope (2014) Me Collectors Room in Berlin among others. Korini has also exhibited at a variety of international art fairs, recently ZONA MACO with Beers London (2017). Artist residencies include CCA Andratx in Palma de Mallorca (2017); ISCP International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York (2015); as well as Autocenter Summer Academy in Berlin (2013).