Alije Vokshi (b. 1945 – d. 2022) lived and worked in Prishtina.
Still Life (1980)
Still Life (1980)

Further exploring memory and identity from a personal perspective, Alije Vokshi’s expressive paintings navigate the space between figuration and abstraction. Drawing from lived experience and Kosovo’s sociopolitical history, her work delves into identity, memory, and resilience—with a particular focus on the emotional lives of women. Through gestural brushwork and allusions to Albanian culture, Vokshi, a pioneering female artist, employs painting as a potent act of expression, resistance, and remembrance.

Vokshi studied painting at the Academy of Figurative Arts in Belgrade, at that time Jugoslavija, becoming the first academically trained woman painter in Kosovo in 1968. In a sociopolitical context where few women had the opportunity to pursue higher education, especially in the arts, Vokshi became a trailblazer within Kosovo’s art scene. Dedicated to further forge her career as a painter in a male dominated scene, in 1981 she moved to Paris for a year to attend a specialization program at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, subsequently moving back to Belgrade to obtain her masters degree.

Recent solo exhibitions include:
I Decided to Draw Bigger Hands, ChertLüdde, Berlin, Germany (2021)
Retrospective, Gallery of Ministry of Culture, Prishtina, Kosovo (2018)
Solo Exhibition, National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina, Kosovo (2007)

Recent group exhibitions include:
Ambitions, National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, Albania (2021)
Burrneshat, National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtinë (2019)
Drawing Now, National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina, Kosovo (2018)

Still Life (1980)
Courtesy: Vokshi – Shehu family

Still Life (1980)
Courtesy: National Gallery of Kosovo Collection