Foti Kllogjeri

Painter | Greece

Foti Kllogjeri is a painter. He was born in Albania in 1973 and studied painting and applied arts at the Fine Arts Academy in Tirana. Since 1996, he has been living and working in Thessaloniki.

He has exhibited his work in 6 solo exhibitions in Greece and has participated in more than 70 exhibitions worldwide. His works are part of private collections.

Foti Kllogjeri represents Greece as a painter in the International Watercolor Society (IWS) and serves as the Head of the Albanian Delegation of Visual Artists participating in the Fabriano Symposium on an annual basis since 2017. He has also served as the Vice President of the SKETVE (Association of Visual Artists of Northern Greece) from 2019 to 2022. Additionally, he collaborates with the collective of visual artists ARC – Art Revisited Collective since May 2018.

Statement

Today, loneliness and alienation, the psychology of individuals in modern metropolises, and the dialogue between urban and natural landscapes call for a new mode of representation and naturally raise new topics of interest. In my works, I am preoccupied with capturing movement as a force of life, the relationship between humans and their environment, and the imprint they ultimately leave upon it.

AT A GLANCE

Genre: Painting
Medium: Oil on canvas, watercolor on paper
Style: Expressionism with elements of abstraction and neo-impressionism, intense use of color
Themes: Landscape
Workshop: Thessaloniki, Greece
Associations: IWS / EETE / SKETBE
Price Range: €400-€3000
International Scale:
EMERGING | HIGH-POTENTIAL | MID-CAREER | ESTABLISHED

RECENT WORKS

CAREER LANDMARKS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

“Distance Between Us,” curated by Paris Kapralos, Technochoros gallery, Athens 2022

“Urban Entropy,” Technochoros gallery, curated by Electra Douma & Paris Kapralos, Athens 2020

“Seascape & Urban Landscape,” curated by Myrό Gallery at Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 2019

“Modiano,” OTE Art Windows, curated by Yiannis Argyriades, Thessaloniki 2019

“Color as Thought, Escape, Nostalgia,” Govedarou Art Gallery, Thessaloniki 2018

“The Other City,” curated by Paris Kapralos, Myrό Gallery, Central Hall, Thessaloniki 2016

“Metro in Thessaloniki,” curated by Paris Kapralos, Myrό Gallery, Project Room, Thessaloniki 2015

PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS / WORKS IN PUBLIC SPACE

Series “Old Thessaloniki,” Capsis Bristol Boutique Hotel, Thessaloniki, Greece 2018

Series “Metro in Thessaloniki,” Capsis Hotel Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece 2017

AWARDS

2nd Prize, International Festival of the Watercolor Miniature MiniWatercolor Kyiv, 2021

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
(selected)

“Visible and Invisible”, curated by Paris Kapralos, organized by ARTgrID, Luminous Eye, Athens 2023

“Terrain Vague”, curated by Paris Kapralos, organized by ARTgrID, Luminous Eye, Athens 2023

“Man in Cities”, curated by Paris Kapralos, organized by ARTgrID, Chili Art Gallery, Athens 2023

“The New Normal 2”, curated by Paris Kapralos, organized by ARTgrID, Chili Art Gallery, Athens 2022

“Color in Water 5 – Secret City”, curated by Paris Kapralos, Myrό Gallery, Thessaloniki 2022

“All That Unites Us”, curated by Paris Kapralos, co-organized by Foti Kllogjeri/IWS Greece & Besnik Xhemaili/IWS Kosovo, Chili Art Gallery, Athens 2022

“Intersections”, curated by Maria Genitsariou & Paris Kapralos, organized by ARC – Art Revisited Collective, Myrό Gallery, Thessaloniki 2022

“10 Years International Watercolor Society”, curated by Kostas Parcharidis/Chalkos Gallery, Chalkos Blé Vin, Thessaloniki 2022

5th Art Thessaloniki International Art Fair, participation with Chili Art Gallery, HELEXPO, Thessaloniki 2021

“Before the Alcyonides Days End”, curated by Paris Kapralos, organized by ARTgrID, Chili Art Gallery, Athens 2021

“Within Oneself”, ARC – Art Revisited Collective website / Digital Exhibitions Platform, 2021

“Urban Landscape. The Space Where the Modern Human Moves and Operates”, Aristotle Museum of Natural History Thessaloniki, organized by MOMUS & Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, Thessaloniki 2020

“Color in Water IV – The rudderless ship”, The Attic Gallery, curated by Dr. Sasha Chaitow, Corfu 2020

“New Symbols”, exhibition exploring symbolism in contemporary art, organized by ARC – Art Revisited Collective, Chili Art Gallery, curated by Paris Kapralos & Jason Kairofilas, Athens 2020

“Color in Water III – Sea & City”, Chili Art Gallery, curated by Paris Kapralos, Athens 2020

“Art in Babel”, curated by Kalianthi Vogdopoulou, organized by ARC – Art Revisited Collective, Chalkos Gallery, Thessaloniki 2019

“Kaleidoscope”, curated by Dr. Sasha Chaitow, The Attic Gallery, Corfu 2019

“Places Without Feelings”, exhibition based on the poem by Giorgos Alisanoglou, curated by Paris Kapralos, Chili Art Gallery, Athens, March 2019

“Man, Symbol, and Myth”, exhibition of ARC – Art Revisited Collective members and friends, curated by Paris Kapralos, My Art Box, Athens, February 2019

“Contemporary Albanian Visual Artists”, National Museum of Albania, Tirana, Albania, 2017

SKETBE (Association of Visual Artists of Northern Greece) annual art show, Thessaloniki, 2016

“Contemporary Albanian Visual Artists”, National Museum of Albania, Tirana, Albania, 2016.

PROJECTS

“Steps & Course”, annual exhibition of the artistic collective ARC – Art Revisited Collective, Chili Art Gallery, Athens 2023

“Artescape”, panorama of contemporary Albanian visual artists, organized and curated by Foti Kllogjeri under the auspices of the Albanian consulate in Thessaloniki, as part of the 1st Arts & Crafts Festival – Capsis, Thessaloniki, December 2018

“U-topia / Human is th meter of all things “, art project exhibition by ARC – Art Revisited Collective, conceived and curated by Paris Kapralos, 3rd Art Thessaloniki International Fair, Thessaloniki, Greece, November 2018

“Albes Fusha, Edmond Gjikopulli, Fotis Kllogjeri – 3 solos”, Myrό Gallery, Thessaloniki, 2017

“Meet the Artist 5 – Springtime”, curated by Paris Kapralos, Myrό Gallery, Thessaloniki, 2015.

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

London Art Biennale 2023, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London, UK

IWS India Plein Air Festival, New Delhi, India, 2023

IWS Varna International Watercolor Triennale, Bulgaria, 2022

4th International Competition and Exhibition of IWS Indonesia, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, 2022

7th International Lushan Watercolor Festival, China, 2022

IWS Varna International Watercolor Triennale, Bulgaria, 2019

Fabriano In Acquarello, Fabriano, Italy, 2019

Taipei International Symposium “Rome Holiday in Watercolour,” Taiwan, 2019

The International Watercolor Society in Greece, First presentation of the Greek branch of the international watercolor association, 3rd Art Thessaloniki International Fair, 2018

Fabriano In Acquarello, Fabriano, Italy, 2018

IWS 1st International Watercolor Biennale of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 2018

International Watercolor Festival 2018, Ranchi, India, 2018

Fabriano In Acquarello, Fabriano, Italy, 2017

Mediterraneo International Watercolor Exhibition, Rome, Italy, 2017

Indonesia Watercolor Biennale, 2017

2017: Watercolor Biennale, Slovakia, 2017

National Museum of Albania, Tirana, Albania, 2017

National Museum of Albania, Tirana, Albania, 2016.

ARTWORKS

CRTICAL APPROACH

Descendant of a rich tradition of Greek urban landscape, Foti Kllogjeri stands out for capturing movement, exploding colors, compositional skill, and an abstract approach to panoramic views of streets and buildings, urban noise and hustle, and the non-direct depiction of people, but rather their kinetic imprints and the sense of the city’s clamor. The painter responds in his own way, offering a contemporary and remarkable perspective. Movement is portrayed on the canvas, often devoid of emotion or with a concealed lyricism that reveals the contradictions and conflicting emotions of attraction and repulsion experienced by individuals in modern metropolises. It’s the city itself that interests the artist, as he “writes” in the human consciousness, inscribed in the collective unconscious.

The element that makes the artist’s approach unique is a delicate balance between gestural painting and the relationship with color that of a colorist, which he is. A neo-impressionistic sentiment emerges from his works, as the focal point of his attention is not anchored in what the eye sees but in the general impression the mind grasps at first glance. His works contain noise, and the overall result is a juxtaposition of opposing, contradictory, and chaotic movements, much like what truly occurs in our cities, in the multitude of people passing through, living, or simply moving, generating meetings and blends of the private and public realm at every moment.

On a technical level, even though in oil painting he has largely swapped brushes for a palette knife, Kllogjeri doesn’t rely on excessive use of impasto, but rather on the portrayal of multiple individual elements in an abstract manner. Literally, the viewer assumes a detail that isn’t there or is formulated entirely abstractly, as due to the adept depiction of movement, the mind adds elements to the perception of the frame that aren’t present.

In watercolors, notable in the context of modern Greek art, is the artist’s exploration of various papers and techniques, as well as the use of water-soluble pigments and their mixing through less common methods in the Greek art scene. Morphologically, his watercolor works appear more abstract, while the urban-natural landscape dichotomy is exploited in certain paintings, likely to highlight the expansion of the urban landscape or its integration into nature.

– Paris Kapralos,
Art Curator