Biography
Kreshnik Xhiku is an Albanian-born, award-winning sculptor and art professor. He currently works as an Art Consultant at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA since 2007. He taught sculpture and drawing for 16 years as a professor of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania, where he also served as the Dean of the Visual Arts Academy from 1996 to 1998. Nick has been living in the DC metropolitan area since 2000. He works on sculpture and also teaches drawing, sculpture, and wood and stone carving at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Kreshnik Xhiku belongs to a generation of artists who were formed in the early 80s, receiving the best that academic training offered from the elite of creators of that time, who conveyed the artistic influences of the schools where they had studied in Europe.
For the talent that he developed at the Academy of Arts, he was kept as an assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts, a privilege that was reserved for the most prominent talents.
Kreshnik Xhiku became part of the first exhibitions in the 80s, and it was seen as one of the artists who would replace the first generation of creators in the medium of sculpture.
After the 90s, Kreshnik Xhiku became one of the most active visual artists, winning three prizes in the "Onufri" visual arts competition and participating twice in the Ankara Biennale.
Kreshnik Xhiku's art mainly belongs to the abstract current, which makes the visitor not to ask what it is, but to enjoy it.Using wood and metal, sometimes textiles accompanied by colors, Xhiku creates structural forms, where the hand of the artist is clearly visible.Wood, for Xhiku, represents warmth and serves as a counterweight to the coldness of metal. Wood is also a connecting element to the sculptor's birthplace, reawakening feelings from childhood when wood was the main heating element.
This way of expression brings the viewer closer, because it creates harmony between fantasy and form, without losing the features of each. With this, the sculptor Xhiku shows that the expression is as clear as it is haunted and that there are no fixed ways of expression. Abstraction allows the artist to go beyond the limiting standards.
His works have been exhibited in many countries in Europe and the USA. Xhiku's sculptures decorate parks and public spaces today. In addition to abstract sculpture,Xhiku's passion is also monumental sculpture. Kreshnik Xhiku has also left his mark on the Memorial that US has raised for its fallen in the Second World War. Xhiku is the author of many public projects, including: the Equestrian Monument in Rochester Hills, MI; Mother Teresa's Monument in Cleveland, OH; Skanderbeg's Monument in London, Great Britain; King Zog I's Monument in Tirana, Albania; Skanderbeg's Monument in Bari, Italy; Dom Simon Filipaj's Monument in Shengjergj, Montenegro; Faik Konica's bust in Tirana, Albania.
Kreshnik Xhiku has participated in many exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe and is the recipient of many awards and prizes.
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