“Under the Skin” is a project recently exhibited at Gallery 70 by artist Edison Çeraj, who also curated this exhibition. Nine paintings in mixed techniques (mixed media) are exhibited throughout the space of the gallery. The exhibition was open to visitors from October 20 to November 6, 2022.
When it’s about the human figure and body in visual arts, Çeraj goes beyond the appearance, under the skin, which is something that hasn’t been treated that much, besides in the technology world. The images provided by the technological medicine in an abstract form, not very familiar to the “patients”, have caused a sort of stimulation on the artist, since “the abstract” in this case derives from the concrete, the body. Various stains are extracted from it, to be brought and presented in new shapes through art.
“Under the skin” presents nine paintings through delicate shapes and colorings. Çeraj’s paintings come as unique creations that are present in the world and the infinity of the “subcutaneous”, taken from the rigid technological screen, to journey towards creativity through the timeless image, the painting. The cells seem more present and alive, closer to the visual and the tangible, even though they lean towards the abstract, towards what’s illegible from the conventional image alphabet.
The creations presented in this exhibition come as a result of searching “the abstract” under the skin. Although, according to the author, the border between the real and the abstract fades in nature, because the creation is beyond the abstract or the real.
Edison Çeraj was born in Shkodër on August 28, 1982. He graduated from the Academy of Arts (today the University of Arts) and later graduated with a master’s degree in philosophy at the University of Tirana, Faculty of Social Sciences. For years, Çeraj has been working as a lecturer in the Multimedia atelier at the University of Arts. He is the author of four solo exhibitions: “In search of lost colors” (2008), “Elective subject” (2014), “No-thing” (2016) and “Coloring” (2020), as well as a participant in several other joint exhibitions. Çeraj has curated more than twenty solo and joint exhibitions. He is the author of three books of essays: “Art as a possibility” (Izabel, 2008), “Researches in the metaphysics of art” (Logos-A, 2012) and “The knot of oblivion” (Logos-A, 2017).
