Tizta Berhanu

Watching over, 2018

Unique Artwork

Oil on Canvas

Oil on canvas
120 x 120 cm

CM H 120 W 120

IN H 47.24 W 47.24

Certificate of authenticity - Signed by artist

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About the work

Watching over, 2018

Tizta developed her passion for painting and drawing at an early age. Her love for drawing led her to study art in a private school called "Enlightenment Art Academy" after two years of formal training she joined Addis Ababa University, Alle School of Fine Art and Design for further studies, where she received her BFA in 2013.

Since her graduation, she has been working as a full time studio artist, experimenting and searching for new ways to find her unique voice through her favoured medium, painting.

While she was studying for her undergraduate degree, Berhanu became fascinated by 'love', exploring all the facets of this emotion in her art work. Inspired by human emotions, Berhanu portrays her subjects expressing love, hate, and sadness. But of all the feelings manifested by human kind, sorrow is the one that drives Berhanu to create.

Her paintings are often ambiguous, almost unrecognisable, painted with broad confident brush strokes in deep intense colours. Blues, purples and deep sea greens, dominate the canvasses creating an almost uncomfortable atmosphere wherein the viewer comes voyeuristically close to the emotions of the portrayed.

About artist

Tizta Berhanu

Tizta Berhanu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1991 where she has lived and worked her entire life.

Since her graduation, she has been working as a full time studio artist, experimenting and searching for new ways to find her unique voice through her favoured medium, painting. While she was studying for her undergraduate degree, Berhanu became fascinated by 'love', exploring all the facets of this emotion in her art work.

Inspired by human emotions, Berhanu portrays her subjects expressing love, hate, and sadness. But of all the feelings manifested by human kind, sorrow is the one that drives Berhanu to create. Her paintings are often ambiguous, almost unrecognisable, painted with broad confident brush strokes in deep intense colours. Blues, purples and deep sea greens, dominate the canvasses creating an almost uncomfortable atmosphere wherein the viewer comes voyeuristically close to the emotions of the portrayed.

Tizta Berhanu's works have been exhibited at Tobya Art Gallery, Seatle (2017); United States Embassy (2018); Addis Fine Art Gallery, Addis Ababa (2019).

About Gallery

Addis Fine Art

Founded in 2016 by Rakeb Sile and Mesai Haileleul, Addis Fine Art is a pioneering gallery based in Addis Ababa and London. Listed as one of the "Most Important Galleries in the World" (Artsy 2019), it is the very first local white cube 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.

January 2016 saw the opening of the gallery's main space in the heart of Addis Ababa, showing a diverse set of modern and contemporary artists. In October 2016, the AFA Project Space was opened in London to expand the international programme centered around the Diaspora voices. In Spring of 2020, the London gallery will move to a permanent office space and full programme in Cromwell Place, a first-of-its-kind exhibition space in Kensington, London.

In it's short history, Addis Fine Art has 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.

Addis Fine Art Gallery
3rd Floor Woldfiker Building
Bole Medhane Alem, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Monday - Saturday // 10am-1pm & 2-6pm
Tel: +251 980 635 696

Addis Fine Art London
1 - 5 Cromwell Place
South Kensington, London SW7 2JE
*Opening Spring 2020
Tel: +44 203 488 0822