"Foundation Pit" by Sem Lala features two sleek, black rods leaning against a white wall, emphasizing a minimalist aesthetic with a focus on geometric simplicity. The image suggests a dialogue between space and object, evoking elements of formalist art. Lala's work draws inspiration from Mike Brill’s WIPP designs, exploring the enduring power of shapes and symbols as warnings across time. By engaging with themes of communication and time, the piece questions the permanence of meaning and how cultural shifts affect interpretation. ...
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.
