Elidon Mucaj

my background

Elidon Muçaj’s work belongs to a chromatic and symbolic universe that explores the depths of the human unconscious with striking intensity. Born in Vlorë, Albania, in 1976, he migrated to Italy in 1990.

A self-taught painter, he turned to art following a vivid dream in his twenties—though he had always felt like a painter since childhood, observing the world with a deep, instinctive sensitivity. Developing his expressive language between Tuscany and Milan, Muçaj has participated in numerous exhibitions and drawn inspiration from surrealist traditions, ranging from Francis Bacon to the Leipzig School.

Free from academic constraints, his art is a continuous experimentation with color, form, and emotion. His figures often emerge in moments of crisis—vivid expressions of their animal instincts and the inescapable imperfections of the human condition.

portfolio

  • Selected Works
  • 2025
  • 2024
  • 2023
  • Earlier Works

Incertezze

Olio su tela, 200x200 cm

Identità frammentata 1

Olio su tela, 200x250 cm

Identità frammentata 2

Olio su tela, 200x250 cm

Estraneità

Olio su tela, 200x200 cm

Gravità

Olio su tela, 122x98 cm

Senza Titolo - Paesaggio

Olio su tela, 70x100 cm

Paesaggio con Van Gogh

Olio su tela, 70x100 cm

Radici 1

Radici 2

Olio su tela, 40x51 cm

Radici 3

Olio su tela, 60x79 cm

Mamma raccogli le mie lacrime

Olio e matita su tela, 124x100 cm

Autoritratto

Olio su MDF, 44,5x58 cm

Lui 06

Olio su MDF, 48x50,5 cm

Albergano tensioni

Olio su tela, 200x250 cm

Trinomio

Olio su tela, 200x210 cm

I'm an artist

Olio su tela, 224x200 cm

I'm an Artist two

Olio su tela, 200x150 cm

Senza Titolo

Olio su tela, 80x135 cm

Senza Titolo

Olio su tela, 150x150 cm

Senza Titolo - Senza Parole

Olio su tela, 225x200 cm

Studio

Olio su tela, 82,5x72 cm

Studio per Radici

Olio su tela, 50x50 cm

Camminare-in-consapevolezza

Olio su tela 51x40 cm

Che storia

Olio su bambù, 46x30 cm

Crede fermamente

Olio su tela, 122x169 cm

L'altro

Olio su tela, 150x125 cm

L'uomo che fuma

Olio su carta, 115x150 cm

Lasciami giocare

Olio su tela, 170x200 cm

Lei potrebbe aver ragione

Olio su carta, 150x200 cm

Lui 2

Olio su tela incollata, 70x55,5 cm

Non ho capito

Olio su carta, 112x150 cm

Per favore

Olio su tela, 150x200 cm

Perché vuoi vedere autoritratto

Olio su tela, 76x60,5 cm

Personaggio

Olio su tela, 220x200 cm

Poesia nuda

Olio su MDF, 78,5x61,2 cm

Ritratto di Lui

Olio su multistrato, 37x30,5 cm

Sono stato in diversi inferni

Olio su tela cartonata, 60x40 cm

Studio di Lucian Freud

Olio su legno, 32,2x35,8 cm

Studio di un ritratto

Olio su tela, 95x68 cm

Studio per Ti ricordi

Olio su tela incollata su legno, 26,5x30 cm

Ti prego

Olio su tela, 200x240 cm

Ti ricordi

Olio su carta, 120x150 cm

Tutti d'acciaio

Olio su tela, 120x200 cm

Esausto

Olio su tela, 135x200 cm

Donna con il fuoco

Olio su tela, 170x200 cm

Loro

Olio su tela, 150x200 cm

Senza Colpa

Olio su tela, 130x200cm

Lui

Olio su tela, 124,5x142 cm

Chiara e il fuoco

Olio su tela, 150x200 cm

Lui 2

Olio su tela

Mi domando se

Olio su tela, 91x70 cm

Studio di Lucian Freud

Olio su legno, 32,2x35,8 cm

Studio di un ritratto

Olio su tela, 95x68 cm

Studio di Van Gogh

Olio su carta, 95x65 cm

Autoritratto

Olio su tela, 40x60 cm

Autoritratto

Olio su tela, 200x110 cm

Auturitratto

Olio su tela, 54x70 cm

Chiara

Olio su tela, 120,5x150 cm

Il Pittore e il Muro

Olio su tela, 224x200 cm

Ghiaccio

Olio su tela, 240x200 cm

Serie 12 Apostoli

Olio su tela, 100x150 cm

Miele vetro sabbiato

Miele, macerie, chiodi da muratore, vetro e legno

40x30 cm

Jolly-miele, macerie, carta da gioco, vetro e legno

50x40 cm

fanculosièrotto - Corna animali, vetroresina, legno

Scusi - Pane a legno

Senza titolo - sigarette, miele, sapone di marsiglia, vetro e legno

40x30 cm

Installazione scarpe, erba, crocefisso, scritta sul muro

Ti prego, smalto su vetro intagliato su legno

Dove Olio su tela

200x240 cm

Ho pensato a lei molto spesso

200x265 cm, olio su tela

Il seminatore usci a seminare

Olio su tela, 240x200 cm

Io-olio-su-tela

280x300 cm

Loro 2 Olio su tela

200x450 cm

Loro Olio su tela

200x450 cm

Mi son perso navigando

Olio su tela, 200x220 cm

Senza titolo

Olio su carta, 100x70 cm

Senza titolo

Olio su tela, 240x200 cm

Senza titolo

Olio su tela, 150x200 cm

Senza titolo

Olio su tela, 40,6x30,5 cm

Senza titolo - Collage e olio su mdf

50x70 cm

Senza titolo

Olio su tela, 150x100 cm

art curriculum

exhibitions, publications and awards

Galleria Signorelli, Solo exhibition, Cortona

2007

Young Artists Award, Arezzo

2008

Pero Piero, Group exhibition, Arezzo

2009

No war, please!
Circolo Culturale Bertolt Brecht, Milan
Curatela | Anna Epis e Aldo Torrebruno

2010

Collettivo Ansia, Trezzo sull’Adda

2010

Galleria Bagutta, Group exhibition, Milan

2011

Art for Interior, Collettivo Ansia, Milan

2014

Loro, Solo exhibition, Ortaccio Spazio Culturale, Vico Pisano

03/2024

Habitat, Group exhibition, Onartgallery, Florence

02/2025

Corrispondenze, Group exhibition, Onartgallery, Florence

03/2025

STUDIOCOLDITZ33, Solo exhibition, Berlin

04/2025

Studio Colditz33 Exhibition 1
Studio Colditz33 Exhibition 2

reviews and articles

Elidon Mucaj: The Tension of Vision, The Power of Colour

Elidon Mucaj is an Albanian painter with an intense and vibrant poetic vision. His works dig deep into the human soul, combining expressive strength with a high emotional tension, perceived from the very first glance. The painting becomes a battlefield between reality and vision, the visible and the invisible, where nothing is ever fully resolved...

Stefano Duranti Poccetti
Read the full article

Muca — When Painting Digs into the Abyss Within Us

Elidon Mucaj's painting does not merely depict the surface: it digs into the deep layers of human experience,
reopening wounds and memories that become taut, living pictorial matter.
The gestures of colour open fissures into the abyss of emotion, transforming figures and landscapes into symbols of fragility and resilience.
The viewer is invited to confront what survives beneath the surface, between abandonment and the possibility of rebirth.

Stefano Duranti Poccetti, Il Giornale OFF, 02/07/2022.
Read the full article

Esausto

Elidon Mucaj bravely tackles the theme of human fragility, bringing to the canvas a naked, curled figure immersed in a natural setting that is as lush as it is alien. The body, bent and vulnerable, is rendered in muted tones and with expressive brushstrokes, while the background bursts with vegetation and vivid colours. The oil is applied thickly, creating a living materiality that reinforces the contrast between the energy of nature and the inertia of man. The large prickly pear cactus (Opuntia), a symbol of resistance and survival, towers over a body that seems about to dissolve. In this way the artist constructs a visual drama without rhetoric: the body is there, real, exposed and without defence. There is no judgement or pity, only observation. Elidon conveys the struggle of existence, the isolation, but also the possibility of rebirth through confrontation with the earth. The work becomes a visual meditation on abandonment and resilience.

Gian Mauro Sales Pandolfini, Florence, Palazzo Borghese, 14 June 2025
Fondazione Effetto Arte.

thoughts

My painting is a continuous dialogue between instinct and construction, between matter and vision. I work with oil on canvas, exploring the density and fluidity of color to create images that emerge almost canvas surface become a field of tension, where the pictorial gesture builds and deconstructs forms, always seeking a balance between chromatic explosion and the definition of the figure.

I use pure, vivid colors, often applied with a palette knife or thick brushstrokes that enhance the threedimensionality of the image. The figures appear restless, fragmented, almost suspended in a space that challenges traditional perspective rules. The contrast between fullness and emptiness, between sharp lines and dissolutions, is essential in my work: I want each painting to be a field of forces where the viewer’s eye is captured and guided through the movement of the composition.

I often start from a mental image or an idea that develops through sketches, collages, or directly on the canvas. I work instinctively, allowing color and matter to lead me toward unexpected forms. The figurative element is always present but never realistic: the human being in its deepest essence, a body that twists, expands, dissolves into the surrounding landscape.

Through my painting, I seek to create an emotional and visual tension, a direct connection between the artwork and the viewer. For me, art is a territory of exploration and discovery, a process in which the canvas becomes a stage for the unconscious and the infinite possibilities of form and color.



“To be a painter, one must observe, study, look, marvel, admire, erase, redo, doubt, analyze oneself, analyze…”

Elidon Muçaj — November 2024

Contact

Name: Elidon Mucaj

Email: mucajelidon76@gmail.com

Phone: +39 328 775 2217

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