Jakup Ferri. photo: Ferdi Limani Jakup Ferri
Jakup Ferri (1981, Prishtina, Kosovo, based in Prishtina and Amsterdam) is a contemporary artist and professor at Prishtina Art Academy and guest advisor at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He studied at Prishtina Art Academy and Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2006 he received a prestigious award Kunstpreis Europas Zukunft (The Future of Europe), Museum of Contemporary Art (GfZK) Leipzig. In 2008 he received the Buning Brongers Award in Amsterdam and in 2003 the Muslim Mulliqi Prize and the Artists of Tomorrow Award.
While studying at the turn of the new millennium, Jakup Ferri sensed that his home city Prishtina was invisible and isolated from the western (art) world. These impressions of alienation influenced his early work, primarily films in which he established an ironic distance to issues of cultural identity, history and the place of the peripheral artist. They have continued to colour his practice in the decades since.
In recent years, Ferri has focused on making drawings, tapestries, mosaics and paintings. He has also conducted extensive research of, and established enduring collaborative relationships with, outsider and folk artists, seeing huge value in their engagement with handmade materials such as carpets, glass, wood and textiles and the locally-specific methods for their production. Recurring subjects in his practice include the desire for contact and to feel a part of something, as well as experiences of failure and questions involving identity.
Ferri has been an artist-in-residence at numerous places, including the International Studio and Curatorial Program New York, Kultur Kontakt Austria and Werkplaats Molenwijk, a project space of Framer Framed in Amsterdam.
In addition to private collections, his work is also part of the collection of Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest. Ferri’s work has been shown extensively at international (solo and group) exhibitions in museums and galleries, festivals and biennials, including Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, Cetinje Biennale, Manifesta 14, Kunstmuseum Luzern, amongst others.
