Foward Khaleelah I. L. Harris
on
SpaceBetween
As this exhibition holds a mixture of older and never before seen pieces, I encourage a kind of consumption of Assefa’s delicately titled works At different moments in our lives, colors of abstraction that engenders consideration of determine and depict the breadth and width time, space, and light through what is visual, in hopes that you might find respite. With oil of existence. Using a plethora of rhetorical devices, whether literally or metaphorically, paint, strategic and mesmerizing strokes both lead the way towards personal reflection while those who are able utilize the colors surrounding and the physicality of human exis- accommodating self-lead meditation. Between tence to govern themselves throughout the and amidst the stains, gradients, and more trials and tribulations of life. However, each visible brush strokes you will hear from the inner depths of yourselves an exclamation; “you of these colors and their respective moments, plucked your soul out of its secret place and as well as the spaces we inhabit as we make brought it to the mirror of your eye!” our way, cannot speak to what we witness in the space between. It is with great vigor, in the various ways which it can be applied, that I present the catalog for Redeat Assefa’s exhibition prompts us, the first solo exhibition of Redeat Assefa (b. “What lies between presence and absence, 1992, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). With care for what exists in the binary spaces?” In the the artists’ hope and dedication to self-care, I space between the culmination of a thought hearten the audience to open themselves toand the formation of a new thing lies a world wards what these works of abstraction might of visuals that express the philosophical co- affect in our lives. Abstraction is indeed a pornundrums which a rational existence thrusts tal, but the appropriate pathways the portal of this exhibition shepherds us must be deterupon us. mined in the contemplative moments throughout this journey.
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