Edi Rama (b. 1964 in Tirana, Albania) presents for the first time in Portugal, at Galeria Nuno Centeno, with the solo exhibition WELCOME.

As an artist and Albania’s Prime Minister, both these roles merge inside his office. His training as a painter adapted, quite naturally, to the political atmosphere.
During his time as the Minister of Culture, Rama would improve his focus on meetings by drawing on A4 paper sheets, such as government correspondence and schedules. According to the artist, “politics, within its insanity, can sometimes make art even better”.
These explosions of colour, almost like living organisms, became a hallmark on the city of Tirana. Following a harsh dictatorial period, Albania’s Socialist Party’s leader converted it’s grey landscape by ordering to paint the city’s Communist era buildings with bright colours and expressive patterns. This political act is an example of Edi Rama’s “dual” outlook, utilizing his artistic expressivity to handle the governmental sphere.
Growing up in a restrictive education system, where Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso were considered “degenerate and forbidden”, Rama soon understood the importance of providing the possibility, to any of his citizens, to become, openly, and artist. By investing in opening Albania’s doors to an unprejudiced Artistic Culture, inadvertently, he also altered the country’s “isolated “position. The impact of Rama’s abstract and vivid figures travels from the Prime Minister’s office into Albanian streets, bringing to light, simultaneously, his political vision.
Edi Rama lives and works in Tirana, Albania. Former Painting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Albania’s Prime Minister, since 2013, and author of various books, his artworks have already been shown at many group and solo exhibitions, worldwide, such as Kunsthalle, Rostock, Germany (2018); Carlier | Gebauer, Berlin, Germany (2019); Edi Rama Work, Madrid, Spain (2019); Alfonso Artriaco, Naples, Italy (2020); Haus am Lützow-platz Gallery , Berlin; Die Spielchen des Freund Hein / The Little Games of Mr Joe Black, Palastgalerie, Berlin, Germany (2016); Miart, Italy (2018); Art Basel (2018); Artissima, Italy (2022).