Edi Hila. Painter of transformation

FROM

24/05/18

UNTIL

29/07/18

The National Gallery of Arts in Tirana presents the retrospective of the Albanian painter Edi Hila.

Edi Hila was born in Shkodër in 1944 and works in Tirana. He is affiliated with the Tirana Academy of Fine Arts, where he is an influential teacher. Educated in Shkodër, a city with its beginnings in the ancient world, Hila has always had access to the roots of classical culture.

He primarily creates series treating a selected theme over several paintings. The most important of Hila’s series include Paradox (2000–2005), Relations (2002–2014), Threat (2003–2009), Roadside Objects (2007–2010), Penthouses (2013), Martyrs of the Nation Boulevard (2015) and A Tent on the Roof of the Car (2017). The realism of his painting is distinct, based on careful observation of detail, which he exploits to convey the psychological truth of the observed phenomenon.

Edi Hila: Painter of Transformation is a joint project of the National Gallery of Arts, Albania, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and Kontakt. Art Collection in Vienna.

Curators
Kathrin Rhomberg, Erzen Shkololli, Joanna Mytkowska

Cover photo: Edi Hila, Witness (from the series “A Tent on the Roof of a Car”), 2017. Courtesy: Kontakt Art Collection

Florian Bauer

Director Social Finance, Sustainability and Innovation
Since 2023, Florian Bauer has been responsible for social finance, sustainability and social innovation at ERSTE Foundation. Prior to this role, Florian worked in the NGO & Social Entrepreneurship sector for more than 13 years. He led the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), an international multilateral NGO that works to accelerate market-based deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient systems in developing countries, and was Managing Director & COO of the Impact Hub Vienna. From 2020-2023, Florian established strategic alliances with key partners and helped to create innovative semantic technology solutions at Semantic Web Company (SWC), a leading IT company in semantic AI solutions.