Olson Lamaj

Olson Lamaj is contemporary artist working and teaching in Tirana. He graduated as a painter from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 2008, and received his M.A degree in photography from the Academy of Fine Arts Brera in Milan in 2010.
Solo exhibitions include:
The cat above and the mouse below, Bazamant Art Space Tirana;
Holy muscle, Hoast Project Vienna; 
(Over)Identification, Tulla Culture Center Tirana.
Group exhibition include:
A for Unapologetic- DOMA art Foundation Sofie, Post – Young Albanian Artists at Fondazione Museo Pino Pascali - Museo d'Arte Contemporanea in Polignano a Mare;
The Whale That Was a Submarine, Ludwig Museum Budapest;
Dark Chapters, Graz;
Nationless, Center of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki.

He was awarded ARDHJA award in 2012. His work investigates social and political issues related both to contemporary life in Albania and to more universal and timeless systems of meaning extending beyond immediate conditions. Lamaj’s projects emphasize the semiotic over-saturation – and the mysterious, almost mystical qualities – of objects and images related to political ideologies of various kinds. His artworks function as a collective mythography of the present, laying the groundwork for the projection and creation of new myths.