Artan Hajrullahu

There is a nostalgia, says Artan Hajrullahu, about the household objects he grew up with: handmade laceworks and blankets, mirrors and wood stoves, toys, televisions and watermelons.

Each object reminds him of a story, and that story always relates to another story. More often than not, these stories revolve around love and intimacy: between couples, parents and children, brothers and sisters, cousins and in-laws. Hajrullahu relives these micronarratives in small-format drawings depicting scenes from everyday life.

Habitually executed on packing paper, his works cultivate a poetic simplicity and gentle irony, often showing whole families huddled together in one room. His portrayal of warmth and togetherness becomes more controversial when it coincides with nudity, still a social taboo in Kosovo, or when it makes fun of the conventions around marriage or gender division. 

Artan Hajrullahu (1979, RKS) is a Kosovo born artist, who works across painting and drawing. His artistic practice reflects on narrative descriptions from everyday life and childhood memories.

Through this, his work is closely related to the images of an ordinary life embedded in a child’s imagination. For example, his work ”Drawings” depict the everyday nostalgic scenes of childhood memories, where the relationship between human beings and household objects tells a poetic story. His drawings often contain references to families and traditional themes, including prejudices against nudity and social taboos.

Hajrullahu has participated in many local and international projects. The ”Artists of Tomorrow” award in 2013 gave Hajrullahu the opportunity to participate in the International Studio and Curator Program – ISCP in New York. In 2018, he was honoured with the Muslim Mulliqi Award – NGK. Hajrullahu works and teaches painting at the High School of Visual arts in Gjilan, Kosovo.