Addis Fine Art – Artskop

Gallery list announced for the 7th edition of 1-54 london

Artskop3437 — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 18:24:36 +0000

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair returns to London for its seventh edition at Somerset House, 3 – 6 October 2019.

Bringing together 45 galleries from 19 countries, 1-54 will be presenting 16 galleries from Africa and over 140 artists of both emerging and established profile. 15 galleries will be welcomed to the London fair for the first time including, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Claire Oliver Gallery, espace d’art contemporain 14N 61W, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Galleria Anna Marra, Guns & Rain, The Hole, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Luce Gallery, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Nil Gallery, Sakhile & Me, SMITH, Tabari Art Space and Ubuntu Art Gallery.

Building on the success of the expanded programme of non-profit Special Projects, 1-54 will once again present a number of collateral projects, including including Mary Sibande’s first solo exhibition in the UK, I Came Apart at the Seams presented in partnership with Somerset House running through the 7 January 2020. 1-54 is also proud to renew the partnership with the Kamel Lazaar Foundation (KLF) to commission a large-scale installation in The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court at Somerset House.

Curated for the first time by curator Kerryn Greenberg, Head of International Collection Exhibitions at Tate, 1-54 FORUM returns over four afternoons. Dedicated to the late Nigerian curator Bisi Silva, the programme will convene leading cultural practitioners to discuss the questions at the core of Silva’s practice.

Full list of exhibitors

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair

3-6 October 2019, Somerset House

London Somerset HouseStrand, London WC2R 1LA

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Merikokeb Berhanu’s second solo show with Addis Fine Art

Artskop3437 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 17:41:36 +0000

Addis Fine Art presents this spring Beneath the Surface: The Mysteries of Living and Dying, Merikokeb Berhanu’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. The show will take place at the Addis Fine Art Project Space in London, opening on Tuesday 23 April from 6 – 9 PM, and on view from 24 April to 11 May 2019, Tues – Sun 12 – 6 PM.

Beneath the surface : the mysteries of Living of Dying

Merikokeb Berhanu, Untitled XXXIII, 2019. Acrylic on canvas. 57 7/8 x 50 in. 147 x 127 cm
© Courtesy Merikokeb Berhanu & Addis Fine Art

Merikokeb Berhanu (b.1977) creates an aloof, almost subterranean atmosphere in her paintings. An array of life bearing forms, such as orange seed pods, embryos, fallopian tubes, and pulsing cells, appear set against a vibrant coloured background of predominately intense blues and greens, forming surreal yet earthly structures.

Merikokeb makes much of the vertical ascent of saplings, plants bursting through the surface, as well as the forces that resist and suppress their efforts. Both growth and decay appear in equal measure: a flower climbs through a dense rock, if only to blossom and droop into the appreciative embrace of an exhausted and bonelike human figure. Her work at once appears to be a celebration of these life-bearing forms, as well as something more decidedly complex – in her words,

“The life that we are passing through. The light, line, the complexity and density of what surrounds us, the thick fog and smoke, happiness and hope, misery and bliss.”

She deeply communicates the visual equivalent of her feelings and thoughts, wanting the viewer to “hear” the images through their own visual power.

Merikokeb Berhanu, Untitled XXXVI, 2019. Acrylic on canvas. 59 7/8 x 48 1/8 in. 152 x 122 cm
© Courtesy Merikokeb Berhanu & Addis Fine Art

Merikokeb was born in Addis Ababa, where she attended the Addis Ababa University Fine Arts and Design School. She graduated in 2002 with a focus on mural design. Engaging with a long and deeply rooted tradition of Ethiopian painting, Merikokeb’s works feature abstract forms and dense backgrounds, which interact with recurring organic symbols. Informed by the physical structures of Addis Ababa as well as the artist’s psychological musings, the rich imagery within these works renders a complex understanding of contemporary personal and collective life through all-encompassing, complex compositions.

Merikokeb Berhanu, Untitled XLI, 2019. Acrylic on canvas 91 x 122 in
231.1 x 309.9 cm
© Courtesy Merikokeb Berhanu & Addis Fine Art

She currently lives and works in Maryland, USA. She previously worked from the Nubia studio, which she set up with a group of fellow artists. Nubia studio is a dynamic cultural centre and studio space in the heart of Addis Ababa. Her work has been shown at numerous exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at the Ethiopian National Museum (2011), RedHill Art Gallery, Nairobi (2015) and Addis Fine Art Gallery (2016). Her group showings include the 1.54 African Art Fair, London (2016, 2015), Art of Ethiopia, Sheraton Addis, Addis Ababa (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013), Art Lab Africa, Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town (2017, 2015), My Self Portrait, Asni Gallery, Addis Ababa (2011), and Ashara, Laphto Gallery, Addis Ababa (2013).

Merikokeb Berhanu, Untitled XXXV, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 59 7/8 x 38 1/4 in. 152 x 97 cm
© Courtesy Merikokeb Berhanu & Addis Fine Art

Founded by Rakeb Sile and Mesai Haileleul, Addis Fine Art is a pioneering gallery based in Addis Ababa and London. The very first local space and international platform based in Ethiopia, the gallery focuses on highlighting modern and contemporary fine art from the Horn of Africa region and its diasporas.

Addis Fine Art Founders Mesai Haileleul and Rakeb Sile.

January 2016 saw the opening of the gallery’s main space in the heart of Addis Ababa, launching its innovative programme of exhibitions, talks and events, showing a diverse set of modern and contemporary artists. In October 2016, the AFA Project Space was opened in London, to provide an additional international platform to the gallery’s programme. Soon, the London programme will move to Cromwell Place, a first-of-its-kind exhibition space in Kensington, London. Addis Fine Art has quickly become one of the leading galleries from Africa, facilitating critical engagement with the local and mainstream art markets, championing an underrepresented, yet rich space in modern and contemporary fine art.

Beneath the surface :Tthe Mysteries of Living of Dying
Merikokeb Berhanu’s second solo exhibition with the gallery

Opening on Tuesday 23 April from 6 – 9 PM
View from 24 April to 11 May 2019, Tues – Sun 12 – 6 PM
At the Addis Fine Art Project Space
Tafeta, 47 – 50 Margaret Street
London, W1W 8SB, UK
https://addisfineart.com/

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Dawit Abebe

Artskop3437 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 02:48:07 +0000

“Mutual Identity”, first solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art Gallery

Addis Fine Art presents Mutual Identity, Dawit Abebe’s first solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art’s main gallery in Addis Ababa, from 18 September – 22 December 2018.

Dawit Abebe, Mutual Identity 14, 2018. Collage and Pastel on Paper 100 x 70 cm, © Courtesy Dawit Abebe and Addis Fine Art Gallery.

Mutual Identity is a body of work following Dawit Abebe’s X-Privacy series from 2012 in which he critically examines the themes of power and individual and collective freedom. Experiments in composition and form, explore the collective human experience. A growing sense of responsibility in the face of social and cultural shifts, questions of national and global urgency and their implication on the social fabric, are explored in this exhibition.

Collages carefully constructed in Dawit’s signature style, confront the viewer with questions of personal ego and its impact on society. The ego removes contact with nature as humans more divided and isolated. Magazine cut-outs of famous figures are juxtaposed against each other, taken out of their usual context. Vladimir Putin occupies the same space as Tony Blair, Kim Jong Un, Mulatu Teshome, Adolph Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr., a fashion model and a lone, armed soldier. The giant figures seem to represent these individuals’ combined egos. These giant nude male figures explore the ego under difficult social conditions. Stripped of clothes, knowledge and identity, these figures flagrantly present themselves for view.

Dawit Abebe, Mutual Identity 15, 2018, Collage and Pastel on Paper 100 x 70 cm. © Courtesy Dawit Abebe and Addis Fine Art Gallery.

The small collage city below is oblivious to the behemoth above. At times this dominant figure seems to be carrying the weight of the world like Atlas or Sisyphus and at times cowered, shamed by his nakedness, like Adam banished from Eden. Nonetheless, the giant’s masculinity is unquestionable. The cityscape filled with tiny celebrity figures questions civilization and modernity. The god-like role of camera surveillance asks the viewer to question socially constructed ideals of proper behaviour. The imagery of the cage explores systems that encourage power imbalance. These collages ask what our contribution is to the world. They question national identity in the face of privilege and global systems of power. Are we ignoring our surroundings, entranced by our own selfhood and distracted by the personal shadow we cast?

Dawit Abebe, Mutual Identity 20, 2018, Collage and Pastel on Paper 200 x 150 cm. © Courtesy Dawit Abebe and Addis Fine Art Gallery.

Dawit Abebe is an Addis Ababa based artist whose practice is representative of the complexities of the social fabric of Ethiopia, weaving together layers of history with reflective commentary on social and technological change. Born in 1978, he graduated from the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design at Addis Ababa University with a diploma in painting, sculpture, graphics, photography and industrial design. Having founded the Habesha Art Studio in 2001 with four other contemporary Ethiopian artists, he continues to practice from Habesha studio as a full-time artist in residence. Dawit Abebe has participated in several group shows and has had numerous solo shows in Ethiopia as well as other parts of the world including the Emirates, France, Germany, Kenya, the Netherlands, South Africa, Tanzania, UK, and the USA. In Europe, it is represented by Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London. His works are in the collections of Barjeel Art Foundation, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Saatchi Gallery, Frank Cohen, Carole Server and Oliver Frankel.

→ Addis Fine Art Gallery
18 September – 22 December 2018.

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