"Earthworks" by Sem Lala features a vivid red background peppered with black geometric shapes, evoking an alarming yet structured aesthetic. The composition’s symmetrical arrangement of angular forms suggests an underlying message or warning. Utilizing techniques reminiscent of silk-screening, the piece aligns with formalist art movements like suprematism. Inspired by Mike Brill’s designs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Program, Lala explores the persistence of visual language over millennia and questions the permanence of communicated warnings. ...
Sem Lala presents a new series of silk-screened paintings inspired by architect Mike Brill’s designs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Program (WIPP), which aims to warn future civilizations about buried nuclear waste. These works draw from Brill’s earthwork plans, which use geometric shapes to communicate danger across thousands of years. Lala’s paintings highlight the visual similarities between these warning systems and formalist art movements like suprematism, which sought a universal language of shapes and symbols. By blending these ideas, the series explores how meaning shifts over time and questions whether any message can remain clear forever.
Sem Lala (b. 2000 in Elbasan, Albania) is an artist and musician based in New York, currently studying at Bard College. His work explores themes of agency and appropriation, encompassing both visual art and performance. Lala often examines how cultural shifts and appropriation influence artistic expression. He has exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw (2025), Hot Wheels Gallery in Athens (2024), and Plymouth Rock in Zurich (2021). His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Weiss Falk in Basel (2020), gta Exhibitions in Zurich (2020), Haus Wien in Vienna (2021), Les Urbaines in Lausanne (2020), and Lateral Roma in Rome (2021) and among many others. ...
Sentiment is an interdisciplinary exhibition space founded in 2020 in Zurich. It aims to promote and exhibit contemporary artists from Switzerland and abroad to support radical and innovative positions within the local and international cultural landscape.
