By Klea Troka, YES 2011-2012, Albania, hosted by YFU in Delaware, OH

On September 26, I attended the Printmaking Expo 111 along with three other alumnae in order to support alumnus Rei Bengu (YES 2017-2018, hosted by AYUSA in The Colony, TX) whose artwork was displayed in the exhibition.

Printmaking Expo 111, which was organized by Albanian University's Laboratory of Printmaking and curated by Albanian painter and professor Shpend Bengu, featured the work of students from Tirana. The students used different printmaking techniques to express their inner world. Rei used a technique called drypoint in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal. He presented four works, one of which represented a photo he took while he was an exchange student (see photos at left).

Rei, who has always loved photography and finding different ways to express himself through art, said that his exchange experience helped him to nourish his artistic side even more.

The Expo was visited by more than 70 people and was a great way to promote young artists and their work. My fellow alumnae and I had fun viewing all the different art pieces and exploring the different ways in which artists had decided to express themselves and the world around them. The experience helped us to think more deeply about how art can help us address not only only our inner world, but also what is happening around us.

“I love art exhibitions, and I enjoy them differently with different people,” Katerina Hatija (YES 2013-2014, hosted by  CIEE in Everett, WA) shared. “But this time, other than appreciating art, I felt proud the entire time. Proud that one of my friends was part of the exhibition and prouder that he was a fellow YESer.”