Josef Kote

The paintings of J. Kote are symphonies of light and color. They are lyrically stunning and romantic, edgy and current. Kote achieves this delicate balance of seemingly contradictory qualities through his mastery of technique and through years of experimenting to find his unique style. With the lightness of a true master’s hand, he combines classic academic and abstract elements, fusing these, literally letting them run into each other with dripping rivulets of riveting colors and light.

Kote’s trademarks are his bold brushwork and sweeping strokes of vibrant colors applied - more often than not - with a pallet knife. At the same time, other areas of the canvas are left monochromatic and devoid of detail, creating a negative space that lets the eye drift to infinity. The results are paintings that tremble in stillness with energy and light.

Influenced by many places where he lived, Albanian-born artist J. Kote began his journey towards artistic self-discovery in his youth and never looked back. From a very young age, he was endlessly drawing and had the innate urge to create. By the age of 13, he had decided to become an artist and devote his life to the arts. He focused on getting accepted into the finest art high school in his native Albania. Ultimately, he was awarded a coveted spot at the ‘’National Lyceum of Arts’’ in Tirana after competing locally and nationally.

In 1984, Kote followed this impressive feat by being accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts of Tirana, where J.K. was educated on the traditional approach of the old masters. Yet, even as a student, he wanted to break loose from the limitations. He wanted to experiment and grow, sometimes leave paintings seemingly unfinished, and shatter the boundaries of classic realism. While still in school, Kote worked at a movie studio and made a small but well-received animation film, Lisi.

In 1988, Kote graduated with a diploma in painting and scenography. The years of practice and his eight-year solid art education had prepared the young artist well to pursue his life’s quest of living and breathing art. It set him on his lifelong journey to find his unique style and language to create stupendous paintings pulsating with the light and energy he sees all around him.

Kote began his professional career as a scenographer at the Petro Marko Theatre in Vlore. Still, in the late '90s, the 26-year-old artist grew restless and decided to debark to Greece, where the warmth of the Mediterranean sun and brilliant light infused his paintings in tone and style and lent them a more impressionistic air.

Highly respected, the young artist did well and received many important commissions, including 1998 The Meeting of the Leaders for the Hellenic Cultural Union in Thessaloniki, which depicted the Assembly of the Founders of Modern Greece, and a portrait in 2000 of the former president of Greece, Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, for the Greek community in Toronto.

After a very successful ten years in Greece, Kote was weary of resting on his laurels and moved to Toronto. Already renowned for his beautiful portraits and scenic paintings, Kote garnered additional kudos for his gorgeous urban scapes and snow scenes. His color and style moved away from the impressionistic influence toward a more expressionistic feel. The paintings from this period, many of them masterpieces, clearly indicate the continual development of Kote’s style and his fluidity and growth as an artist. Thanks to many avid collectors worldwide, Kote saw his dream and years of labor come to fruition. Achieving this goal, however, only made him strive for higher ones.

Kote moved to New York, The Big Apple, like a rolling stone, in 2009. Here, his paintings and style morphed again. The colors grew bolder, and his style became so unique that it could not be ascribed to an existing genre. This highly prolific painter works on his craft almost daily and for long hours, and is never satisfied, always seeking, experimenting, and growing.

Only the future will reveal the great heights his art will ascend. Certainly, one thing holds for all of Kote’s masterworks: they capture shimmering moments in time and space and are filled with light, energy, and love for whatever subject he chooses to portray.