Interview
Shuk Orani
Shuk Orani is a multi-layered multimedia artist born in Prishtina, Kosovo. He is currently based in Hamburg, and is best known for his large-format, abstract-expressionistic oil paintings.
Orani has had art exhibitions all over Europe as well as in China, the USA, Great Britain and Asia. These include museums and galleries, such as the Musée du Louvre, the Welper Gallery, the Robert Gallery, as well an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Beijing in 2016. His art has received several awards and is represented in various museums and private collections, as well as top-class hotels. Many of Orani’s works have been sold in all parts of the world through international auctions.
His development as an artist has been documented and recognized in various publications, both in print and online media. These publications include Art & Museum Magazine, Spotlight Art Magazine, Artnet News, Circle Art Foundation, Singulart Magazine, among others.
Orani’s works testify to a silent struggle for the liberation of people who ‘sleep’ in rigid norms. He deals with questions of origin, with anachronistic power structures and mind-altering philosophies. His criticism is expressed through a subtle radicalism in the color composition, a complex texture and the refined design, which at the same time gives the depth of his works an ethereal lightness. Orani's color-intensive works are partly broken up by figurative overlaps that interlock.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I was born in Kosovo, an area with an original landscape, old tradition and an exciting history. As a child, I didn't have any media distractions or the stress of a big city. I spent much time in nature. For me, it was all pure inspiration. I didn’t always have paper or canvas, so I would paint on anything I could get my hands on - old newspapers, walls or earth. At some point, my parents realized that this wasn't just a phase, and so they just let me carry on creating. When I was seventeen, I went to Germany to study at an art and design college in Hamburg. I entered another world, with all its advantages and challenges. This experience added another exciting dimension to my creative process.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I am concerned with power systems and questions of origin, distress and limitation through system structures, and needs for higher-level and transcendent synergies. I’m also interested in the protection of nature - whose thinking is different from that of humans. With my work, I criticize the disorientation of people and their lack of willingness to think about larger contexts, as well as the disturbed access to their intuition and feelings. Based on the idea that this probable deficiency could be a threatening reduction of reality, I investigate how the colored matter can create a better deficient structure and new perceptual ability.”
“Orani calls on each individual to turn inward and fathom his or her very personal layers. That means to question oneself and to take off rigid patterns, to transform in order to experience oneself in a new level of consciousness, directly and authentically.” - Aleksandra Savkovic, M.A. Literature, art adviser and copywriter.
How would you describe your work?
“I do not explain my work! However, here are a few comments from art expert, Aleksandra Savković, M.A. Literature, art adviser and copywriter:
‘For Orani, there is only one direction - the depth. In a kaleidoscopic palette of neo-expressionist forms of representation, between sharp colour contrasts and almost degenerate, figurative motifs that seem to break out of the large-format canvas like a gaping wound or almost completely dissolve in the narrative of the colours, lies Orani’s field of tension, including its transformative power.”
“The dramatic conflict between a homogeneous social mass and the individual is strongly represented in Orani's works, especially in his cycle ‘Transcendence’.
Transcendence means crossing boundaries inwards and dealing with the ‘worldly’ limitations of human experience, breaking chains of norms. It also involves dissolving existing power structures that push the individual into a vacuum of restriction and almost in a state of daze. Separated from itself and emotionally isolated from its natural environment.”
“Orani’s passion for art and literature drives him, every day, to new artistic projects. Located between abstract, neo-expressionism and figurative, his works are lively, impulsive, dynamic and particularly expressive. The project, Art Intégré in which Orani is involved, aims to create a space with identity through integrated art, which stimulates new food for thought and at the same time enhances the architecture. The project is not about a simple decorative assignment to the artist, but about helping to shape the identity of a company.”
What is your creative process like?
“My process begins with a topic, an idea with a lot of background, a lot of reading, sketches and the right moment.”
What inspires you?
“I am inspired by positivity, infinite expanses, the connectivity between everything, and our universe.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Regardless of the process I'm in, there have been one or more people who inspired me in the past. They have not always been artists in my field. Sometimes they are philosophers, writers, developers, but also normal people with a big heart.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“My criticism is aimed at people who, in their disorientation, show an unwillingness to think about larger contexts. This is because they can neither call up their feelings, nor are they in contact with their intuition. Starting from the idea that this growing deficiency causes a threatening reduction of reality, I, as an artist, investigate to what extent the colored matter can change an initially deficient structure and create new possibilities of perception.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“Among my exhibitions are those by renowned institutions such as the MOCA - Museum of Contemporary Art in Beijing and the Louvre Museum in Paris as part of a photography award.”
