Albanian-born artist, Juna Skënderi is best known for her minimalist approach to traditional folk art. She creates as a means of dealing with the anxiety and uncertainty related to having lived the majority of her life as an undocumented immigrant in the United States. Her fiber and mixed media art is both an homage to the craft art of Albania and a stylistic continuation of her longtime work with abstractions.
Skënderi has been a working artist for over a decade. Having obtained a BFA in filmmaking at Montclair State University, she initally pursued a career in production and costume design. She has also programmed for film festivals such as the Hamptons International Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and Rooftop Films. She now lives and works in New York City.
EDUCATION
2010: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Filmmaking, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
RESIDENCIES & AWARDS
2020: Queens Art Fund Grant, Queens Council on the Arts, Queens, NY
2019: Monson Arts, Monson, ME
2018: 77Art, Rutland, VT
2014: Theaterlab, New York, NY
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024: Zemra Ime, Sun & Dust Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023: The Immigrant Artist Biennial, Ps122 Gallery, New York, NY
2023: Parasites and Vessels, Accent Sisters, Jersey City, NJ
2021: Is It a Good Time?, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
2021: Borderwalls III, The Border Project, Brooklyn, NY
2020: Notes From the New Interior, Ed Varie, New York, NY
2020: Incubator, Friday Studio Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019: Wish You Were Here 19: Annual Postcard Show, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019: Flat File 2019, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, NY
2018: Paper-Ballad, La Cápsula, Zürich, Switzerland
2018: Viewpoints 2018, Studio Montclair Gallery, Montclair, NJ
2017: Online Exhibition Show #42: String Theories, Field Projects, New York, NY
2016: Artists Respond to the Election, The Living Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016: Garden Party, Collective Arts Incubator, Los Angeles, CA
2013: Greenhouse Gala, TheaterLab, New York, NY
2012: Outlaw, White Box Gallery, New York, NY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wang, Xuezhu Jenny. “Thread and Fiber: Jovencio de la Paz, Juna Skënderi, and Lilian Shtereva” Art Spiel, December 18, 2023
Liu, Kate. “Goings On” Franklin Furnace, August 14, 2023
Bertun, Sydney. “Making in a Pandemic: Juna Skënderi” Medium, August 13, 2021
De Vries, Susan. “Revel In the Art of Bushwick This Weekend With Bushwick Open Studios” Brownstoner, September 17, 2019
Vivas Hernández, Pedro. “A Place to Call Your Own” Vimeo, February 9, 2019
Nostrand, George. “A Place at the Table: Artist Reflects on Immigration Debate” Rutland Herald, August 28, 2018
“The Political Reality of the USA in the Embroideries of the Albanian Artist”, Koha, June 24, 2018
Limani, Lura. “Albanian/American Dreamer” Prishtina Insight, November 10, 2017