Addis Fine Art, Vigo Gallery and Tadesse Mesfin present a solo exhibition of paintings titled “Where We Coalesce’. Featuring Mesfin’s works on canvas from the last four years, the presentation takes place across Addis Fine Art in Addis Ababa from the 15th of September until the 30th of November 2024 and at Vigo Gallery in London from the 20th of September until the 4th of October 2024. The exhibition celebrates the women vendors who work in markets across Ethiopia and are typically overlooked by society. Tadesse elevates their stature in his paintings. The exhibition captures them in moments of contemplative stillness thereby celebrating their essential role as the pillars of daily life.
Mesfin’s artistic career spans more than five decades. His painterly style is greatly influenced by his early education under the renowned Ethiopian modernist Gebre Kristos Desta. He then spent seven years studying at the Soviet Union Leningrad Academy of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, where he received an MFA in painting before returning to Ethiopia in 1984.
The artist’s work features the Ethiopian Modernist tradition of incorporating Amharic alphabetic script in paintings. Through this, Tadesse interprets the human figures as a type of lettering. In this way, his subjects are not merely passive beings but actively participate in the creation of their environment. According to Mesfin, the repetition he uses in his work makes his subjects his symbols, his language.
Mesfin was a professor at the Addis Ababa University Alle School of Fine Arts and Design from 1984 to 2019 and has taught and mentored many of Ethiopia’s renowned contemporary artists, including Merikokeb Berhanu and Tesfaye Urgessa. Lastly, his work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in London, Addis Ababa, New York, Stockholm, Lagos, Dubai and Johannesburg.
