At this year’s Frieze London and Art Basel Paris fairs, many visitors were surprised to find works by an unexpected artist: Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama. Rama—who secured an unprecedented fourth term in May after campaigning to bring Albania into the EU—is also an established artist. Trained at Tirana’s Academy of Fine Arts, he spent several years working in Paris before turning to politics in the late 1990s.
Since then, he has continued to make art, exhibiting at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and twice at the Venice Biennale, and often remarking that drawing has helped him endure long government meetings.
On 9 October, the Berlin gallery Société announced it had added Rama—a charismatic and often controversial leader currently embroiled in multiple scandals—to its roster of a dozen artists.
The gallery wasted no time showcasing its newest addition, dedicating an entire wall at Frieze London in October to around 25 of Rama’s colourful pen-and-oil drawings, accompanied by two painted bronze sculptures displayed on ceramic plinths. A smaller selection of works—three drawings and a sculpture—were shown at Art Basel Paris the following week.
Rama makes works including pen-and-oil drawings and painted bronze sculptures, such as Untitled (2025) Photo: Trevor Good; © Edi Rama
Julia Ballantyne-Way, a partner at Société, tells The Art Newspaper that around half the drawings sold and discussions are ongoing with potential buyers for all three sculptures. “It was super well received,” she says of Rama’s art. “A lot of people don’t know [about Rama the artist] and they are of course very surprised and intrigued to discover him.”
She adds: “You also have people who have long been following him and are thrilled to see him with us now and being represented.”
Ballantyne-Way says she had long been “closely in touch” with Rama, and most recently began discussing representation after attending his solo show at Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris last year. “It’s a new profile for us—we don’t have any other artist-politicians,” she says. “The new work is really exciting. He’s incorporating much more bronze into the ceramics.”
Oltsen Gripshi, an Albanian contemporary artist and critic who published a book on Rama’s art last year, says the artist had moved on from Communist-era Realism to devise a unique abstract language inspired by Kandinsky. “I consider it a new form of neo-expressionism for its blend of expressionism, abstractionism and formalism,” Gripshi says.
Cleaning up his image?
Rama returned to Albania in 1998 to serve as minister of culture, later gaining international attention as the mayor of Tirana (2000-11) for painting drab Communist-era apartment blocks in bold colours. Since becoming prime minister in 2013, his government has overseen the restoration of major heritage sites including the National Historical Museum, the Venetian Tower of Durrës and the Kurçaj Bridge.
Yet his administration has also been dogged by corruption scandals. In 2023, the former environment minister Lefter Koka received a five-year prison sentence for accepting bribes in the so-called “incinerator scandal”, while Arben Ahmetaj, a former deputy prime minister, remains internationally wanted on charges of money laundering, false declaration of wealth and abuse of office.
It’s a new profile for us—we don’t have any other artist-politicians. The new work is excitingJulia Ballantyne-Way, Société
After Rama criticised Albania’s anti-corruption authority following the arrest of Tirana’s mayor Erion Veliaj, a close ally, the authority accused him in February of undermining judicial independence.
Armando Lulaj, a contemporary artist and long-time critic of Rama, called the prime minister’s art a PR stunt to clean up his image, claiming the prime minister withheld funds from detractors. “My group, which criticises his art and the use that power makes of cultural art, is marginalised and cannot receive any public money,” he says.
Ballantyne-Way denies that Rama’s artistic activity is about optics. “He studied art, he taught art and he was a practising artist in Paris before entering politics,” she says.
Rama’s works will appear at Art Basel Miami Beach this week, and in a solo exhibition during Gallery Weekend Berlin next April.
