Jakup Ferri’s output is both personal and direct. In his drawings, diaristic depictions of everyday situations and events, are recounted in comic-strip-like simplicity. His lightly surreal world, in which he is often a character, lies somewhere between autobiography, personal-folklore and fiction. Matter-of-fact portrayals of people sleeping, bicycling, swimming or playing music, appear alongside strange animal-like creatures, belying a characteristic warmth and domesticity. Isolated from their surroundings, they appear as fables, drawn from his experiences of identity, childhood and alienation, charged with universal pangs of joy, humour, melancholy, and isolation.

The richness of Ferri’s work is also indebted to it’s handmade qualities, often employing intricate labour intensive processes. These reflect his extensive research into outsider artists, folk art and naive painters, but also provide a clear link between these practices and his own. In recent years, Ferri has frequently collaborated with carpet and tapestry makers in locations including his hometown Prishtina, Kosovo, Suriname and Burkina Faso. Using traditional materials and dyes, these productions begin with his drawings, but are truly realised as a collaborative process.

Jakup Ferri [1981, Prishtina, Kosovo] studied at the Prishtina Academy and the Rijksakademy in Amsterdam. In 2008 he received the Buning Brongers Award in Amsterdam, and has participated in many international exhibitions including U-Turn Quadrennial for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Istanbul Biennal and De Hallen in Haarlem.

The Horse Hospital
Colonnade, Bloomsbury
London WC1N 1JD