Exhibitions

LUI SHTINI: TREE SPIRITS

Tops Gallery / 400 S. Front St. November 22, 2025 - January 10, 2026 (Reception: November 22 6:00pm - 8:00pm)

Lui Shtini

They stand together, growing layers, determined, as if none will ever change. But change will come in a dozen or so years, when hands will undress them and leave them exposed like freshly sheared sheep.

In fields these skins are laid. In mounds, awaiting destiny. Wind, rain, and sun will lash and wash them clean and dry. The shapes they’ll keep of bodies that once wore them.

When close to them, one feels recorded forms of growth. The sounds of animals and men are memorized there too. How many tales will they reveal when touched?

At last they come together, transformed, holding one another. Time, which shapes, folds, and rounds what’s built, gave them a voice so clear they could finally speak.

Lui Shtini is a painter and sculptor from Kavaje, Albania who has lived in Brooklyn for over twenty years. He has had solo exhibitions at LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Kosovo; Harkawik Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York, NY among others. Shtini’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including the recent shows Abstraction By Any Other Means, Resnick/Passlof Foundation, New York, NY; New Light: Encounters and Connections, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL. His work has been reviewed inThe New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Hyperallergic, and Newcity Art. Shtini attended The Academy of Arts, Tirana, Albania 1996-2000 and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007. His work can be found in institutional collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (US); Centraal Museum, Utrecht (NL); Tang Teaching, Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY (US); La Caixa Foundation, Barcelona, (ES) and Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (LB).