The exhibition will open on Friday 2 June during Amsterdam Art 2023.
andriesse~eyck is proud to present Many Names, a solo exhibition of recent drawings, paintings, and embroideries by Jakup Ferri.
Standing in a laboratory surrounded by a clutter of test tubes, bottles, pipes and glowing liquids, a man peers intently through a microscope. As yet unnamed, he is one of the protagonists in Jakup Ferri’s ever-expanding universe where everyday scenes and extraordinary situations take centre stage. With Many Names, his fifth exhibition at the gallery, Jakup Ferri’s universe continues to grow.
Ferri’s fine line drawings recall the ‘simplicity’ found in folk and so-called outsider art. Both have deeply influenced his work ever since he left his hometown of Pristina (Kosovo) to study at Amsterdam’s Rijksakademie. Paradoxically, once Ferri became a part of a Western art world, he started looking for inspiration elsewhere, specifically in paintings and textiles made by outsider and folk artists with no formal training. He found beauty in their humorous, fantastical approach and admired the inventive ways in which they responded to the politically charged world around them. Yet, the artist claims how he creates purely visual art, without any hidden meaning.
Returning to the drawing of the laboratory, Untitled (2023), it becomes evident that the artist’s true inspiration comes from outlandish micro-organisms (fungi, viruses, bacteria) as seen through an electron microscope. With each fresh glance, a new micro-universe appears, often with other-worldly characters transforming on the outlines of the microorganisms. The unnamed man in the laboratory is a frequent protagonist in Jakup Ferri’s own micro-universes, where he drives, juggles, eats, plays instruments, or engages in other mundane activities. Sometimes a woman and a child also appear – a reference to Ferri’s personal life – or surreal, imaginary creatures, part human, part animal. Ferri’s artistic creations joyfully co-exist in a utopia bursting with colour and pictorial wit.
Jakup Ferri expresses himself through drawing. His meticulously detailed drawings are the place where he does his thinking. His work could, quite literally, be given Many Names. Hence viewers are often given the freedom to name the work themselves. Unrestricted by one medium, Ferri transforms his ideas into different materials. Drawings are translated into tapestries, carpets, or embroideries, which are often made in collaboration with craftspeople from outside the Western art world; people who thus far have remained anonymous or ‘invisible’ to that world. As such, Many Names also refers to the cooperative aspect of Ferri’s work.
BIO
Jakup Ferri (Pristina, 1981) studied art at the Pristina Art Academy and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2022 Jakup Ferri represented Kosovo at the 59th Venice Biennale. Ferri’s work has been shown extensively in international solo- and group exhibitions in museums and galleries, festivals and biennials, including Manifesta 14 (2022); 7th Taipei Biennial (2010); 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005); Kunstraum Innsbruck (2021); Ludwig Museum Budapest (2016); De Appel Amsterdam (2011); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2005), and The National Gallery of Kosovo (2005, 2003). His work is currently on show at Kunstmuseum Luzern until 28 May. He has been artist-in-residence at numerous places, including the ISCP New York, Kultur Kontakt Austria, and currently the Werkplaats Molenwijk in Amsterdam.
