Tesfaye Bekele
Energy Circles
Tesfaye BekeleTesfaye Bekele Energy Circles
Tesfaye Bekele is a painter living in Addis Ababa. His paintings are acutely sensitive meditations/investigations on/of his personal relationship with the spaces he inhabits under the circumstances of living with a physical disability. Paralysed since early childhood with polio, he first learned to navigate the world by crawling, perceiving the soil, plants and insects at close quarters; dragging his body along, he left trails in the earth that are evoked by the looping lines in his intensely lyrical canvases. He later learned to stand with crutches, and was ultimately able to pursue his life-long passion for art, studying at Addis Ababa University Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, where he now teaches.
Tesfaye often paints with the canvas laid on the ground, creating imagined spaces in which to place the body. His knowledge of the structures of the human organism, derived from his studies of biology and physiology, underpins his intuitive explorations of intricate networks of synapses, muscles and bones, branching out in skeins of entangled lines and colour applied by dripping, scratching and pouring paint. The results are powerful expressions of a will to overcome limitations and find fulfilment in the liberties of creating art.
4
Frequency, 2023
6 7
Acrylic on canvas
74¾ x 70⅞ in.
190 x 180 cm.
Trajectoryv, 2023
120
8 9
Acrylic on canvas
47¼ x 47¼ in.
x 120 cm
11
Float, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
78¾ x 60⅞ in.
200 x 154.5 cm.
12 13
Stretch, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
47¼ x 47¼ in.
120 x 120 cm
14 15
Wind Up, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
39⅜ x 39⅜ in.
100 x 100 cm
In 2016, Rakeb Sile and Mesai Haileleul co-founded Addis Fine Art, creating the first white-cube gallery space for modern and contemporary art in Ethiopia. Described as one of the “Most Important Young Galleries in the World” (Artsy 2019), the gallery has since then grown to become one of the leading galleries in Africa, establishing a prominent international platform for artists from the Horn of Africa.
In October 2021, Addis Fine Art London moved into expanded premises in Eastcastle Street, opening a two-storey gallery space in the heart of Fitzrovia. The London gallery programme will encapsulate Addis Fine Art’s commitment to heightened international exposure for, and critical reappraisal of, African art on the world stage. The gallery’s Addis Ababa space will continue to be an incubator for emerging talent, facilitating critical engagement within the local market and encouraging the growth and development of the artworld ecosystem on the continent. The gallery will also serve as a space for artists from the diaspora to return to the continent and share and develop their practice.
Addis Fine Art
21 Eastcastle Street
London W1W 8DD
© 2023 Addis Fine Art
Credits:
Addis Fine Art
All images © 2023 Tesfaye Bekele
Text © 2023 Ikenna Malbert
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Addis Fine Art
Designed by Lucy Harbut
