Valdrin Thaqi

Edge of the Clearing

Each edition is hand embellished by the artist. Contact us to find out about the different editions: editions@chateau-la-coste.com

Valdrin Thaqi pursues a restrained form of figurative painting, models oscillating between absence and presence, always under tension. This edition comes from a painting realised for the exhibition CautionaryTales, showed in the Rogers Gallery of Château La Coste (from March 7th to April 19th 2026). 

The exhibition is anchored within the imaginary of fairy tales, cautionary tales told to children to warn them of external dangers, inspired by the Rogers Gallery, a sterile white space surroundered by a apparent wilderness of nature. The artwork represents a woman, her back turned, a glass of water in hand. Valdrin Thaqi illustrates an daily, almost forgettable action, revealing a tension and a vulnerability of hismodel. 

His work regularly focuses on painting models in stripped-down spaces, void of temporal or social framework. Action is suspended, gazes of models averted, the confrontation with the spectator avoided. 

For the Cautionary Tales exhibition at Château La Coste, he offers a serie of enigmatic figures with minimal postures, in a subdued lighting, making the painting accessible, while an underlying tension threatens to surface. Objects are discreets, their presence not expliciting the narrative but creating points of imbalance, disturbing the legibility of the scene. 

For this edition, the model, by turning her back, is pointlessly trying to protect her intimacy. The glass represents a philosophical extension of her body, vulnerable as she’s hydrating. Valdrin Thaqi hand embellished the artworks by adding a touch of blue shimmer on the receptacle, unique variations for each piece.  The obsession of the artist for the liquid is consequently heightened, water now central, a reference to the hours spent pondering on the ordinary essential around us, a substance as much mundane as it is necessary for our survival.