Engdaye Lemma
18 January - 17 February 2024
Engdaye Lemma Floating SoulsEngdaye Lemma
We are pleased to present Engdaye Lemma’s first solo exhibition in London at Addis Fine Art London. Engdaye Lemma’s (b. 1980) experimental print-making practice synthesises screen-printing, painting, and collage media. Exploring the many ways in which life and culture intertwine, his works are rigorous interrogations of the textures of society. He is inspired by ethnography, with an attention to the power of art to bridge the gap between knowledge and lived experience.
Lemma, who lives and works in Addis Ababa, takes city life as his subject. He often reflects on the ways in which public and private spaces overlap in urban environments. The visual density of his works speaks to the everyday chaos of life in the city: the rapid pace of change and movement, the blurred boundaries of individuality and collectivity, the rhythmic cacophony, and the continuous creation of residual artefacts as leftover objects and scattered marks. Ultimately, Lemma reflects on society and humanity, as he navigates life, meaning, and existence through his work.
Engdaye Lemma was born and raised in Desse City, Ethiopia. His interest in visual art was cultivated at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design where he received his Bachelors of Fine Arts from Alle School of Fine Arts and Design and was part of the school’s first print-making cohort. Lemma now teaches at the School of Fine Arts and collaborates with several of his former teachers and inspirations including Zerihun Yetimgeta, Getachew Yossef, Agegnehu Adane, and Berhanu Ashagre.
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An Interview with the Artist
Engdaye Lemma & Rakeb Sile (Co-Founder, Addis Fine Art)
Rakeb Sile: We are so pleased to be presenting your first solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art’s London gallery, and it is wonderful to have the chance to have a conversation together to learn more about you and your artistic practice.
Could you start by telling us where you are from?
Engdaye Lemma: I was born in the city of Dessie, which is located 400 km from Addis Ababa.
RS : What drew you to pursue a career in art?
EL: I have always had a passion and love for visual art. I have enjoyed drawing and painting for as long as I can remember, but it was at the [Alle School of Fine Arts] which was supported and established by a number of artists, that my passion was made more realistic and persuasive.
RS: Tell me a bit about how art has affected you, and how you have been able to use it as a medium for self-expression?
EL: My story is simple: I found a purpose in life that is both painful and delightful at the same time, and I am simply enjoying each moment. Curiosity inspires me, I must say. Expressing myself has become a lifestyle, a safe place where I can be my true self.
RS: You reference Addis Ababa a lot in regards to your works – can you speak more about the influence of the city on you and your practice?
EL: I try to reflect a diverse conceptualization of society, individuality, and forms of representation, as well as the varied ways in which lived environments trigger different forms of intervention and reconfiguration I am currently living and working in Addis Ababa, so I am exposed to the city’s continued transition, how space defines the character of a city and its dwellers. I am exploring the idea of society as an abstract term that defines our link to the complex interrelations that exist among the members of a group, and how human activities transform, leave marks, and create change slowly, and sometimes abruptly in private and public, collective spaces.
RS: Other than the city, what are your inspirations and how do they affect your practice?
EL: As, of course, I am part of society, excluding myself would not be realistic or honest. Both the visual and philosophical ingredients [of the work] come from a fascination with how we as humans think and exchange information, how we practise our ‘culture,’ and how we express our ideas and thoughts taken in a wide ethnographic sense. This complex whole entails knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. In addition, I am inspired by marks like a rustic texture, a plastic rug, leftover paper, colour, words, the layers that paint makes on walls, poles, fences that show the speed and temporariness of things. The activities in those spaces create a visual chaos and with that, a deep message of what was and what is.
RS: You studied at the Alle School, where you now teach. Are there any particular Ethiopian artists and teachers who have influenced your work?
EL: I am honoured to answer this because I also have the pleasure of working with them today: Zerihun Yetimgeta, Getachew Yossef, Agegnehu Adane, and Berhanu Ashagre.
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RS: How would you characterise your process as an artist who works between mediums like screen-printing, painting, and collage?
EL: Experimental print-making is the best way of describing my practice holistically.
RS: Is there a message you are trying to convey through your art?
EL: It’s not a message, but rather an observation or a point of view. I believe we are all trying to discover or understand ourselves in this world, so I am narrating my side of the story of existence.
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10 11
Heavenly Creatures, 2023
Mixed Media on canvas
130 x 150 cm
12 13
Eve, 2023
Mixed media on canvas
180 x 180 cm
14 15
Floating Souls, 2023
Mixed Media on canvas 158 x 158 cm
16 17
Walls of Psyche, 2023
Mixed media on canvas
180 x 180 cm
18 19
Untitled, 2023
Mixed Media on Canvas
68 x 58 cm
Untitled, 2023
Mixed Media on Canvas
68 x 55 cm
20 21
Untitled, 2023
Mixed media on paper
35.2 x 25 cm
Untitled, 2023
Mixed media on paper
8.2 x 11.6 in.
35.2 x 25 cm
Born in 1980 in Ethiopia.
2014 BFA from the Alle school of Fine Arts and Design, Addis Ababa Univer sity, Ethiopia
EXHIBITIONS
2023 Christine X Art Gallery, Malta Sliema, LETS AGREE TO DISAGREE, 21 October – 12 November
2023 Addis Fine Art, London, United Kingdom, Eastern Voices: Contempo rary Artists from East Africa , 1 June – 22 July
2023 Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ALLE LEGENDS , a group show by pivotal instructors & legendary professors from the Alle school of Fine Arts and Design, 8 January – 25 March
2023 The Way We Work exhibition of Contemporary Nights, from the project ‘Gojo’ residency at the Alle school of Fine Arts and Design Gallery, 24 November – 27 December
2022 Modern Art Museum Gebre Kirstos Desta Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethio pia, Expansive Corridor 17 December – 17 January
2021 Circle art gallery, Nairobi, Kenya, Addis Contemporary II: Six Years on , 14 April – 7 May
2016 Guramayne Art Centre, Recollection in contemporaneity , 30 October30 November
2015 Sheraton Addis Hotel, the Luxury Collection, Addis Art of Ethiopia, 8th edition.
PROJECTS AND WORKSHOPS
2023 Contemporary Nights, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, GOJO residency, THE WAY WE WORK, focused on conversation as an art form to attempt to stir the arts landscape of our locality, 4 October – 25 November
2020 The project Tibeb Be Adebabay, The art side of Addis Ababa two TELL ING MIGRATING STORIES, 7 May – 10 May
2018 Seminar on protection of cultural heritage for developing countries in relation to art and craft - Beijing, China.
2016 The project ‘Tibeb Be Adebabay’ The art side of Addis Ababa, the pro ject contained music, visual art, performance art, photography, video art, Gamification. ‘COME COLOUR WITH US’ was our theme for explo ration in the visual art category where we tried to explore the idea of colour and society as a focus.
2016 Goethe Institute, Lithography workshop for printmaking department held from 24 October – 11 November at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, a workshop for experimenting, exploring and mastering the techniques of Lithography.
PUBLICATIONS
Times of Malta, following the exhibition LETS AGREE TO DISAGREE, the exhibition was reviewed and included under the title TWO ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION on their 26 October 2023 edition
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EDUCATION
Addis Fine Art is a leading African contemporary art gallery with locations in London and Addis Ababa. The gallery was founded in 2016 by Rakeb Sile and Mesai Haileleul, with a focus on artists from Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, and its diasporas. Since then, it has championed African artists on the international stage and established itself as a significant voice in the contemporary African art market. It has developed an international programme showcasing mid-career artists through its London gallery space, one of the city's few Black and African-owned art galleries. The gallery's Addis Ababa location has evolved into a regional incubator for undiscovered talent, exhibiting and developing the careers of emerging artists.
Addis Fine Art
21 Eastcastle Street
London W1W 8DD
© 2023 Addis Fine Art
Credits:
Addis Fine Art
All images © 2023 Merikokeb Berhanu
Text © 2023 Kate Kirby & Ikenna Malbert
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