Artist Movement

Movement

There are many thoughts and figures that join Assefa in her moments in the contemplative spaces that help her create her works. The thoughts of community, societal impact, and social edification all sit with her in the studio. Abstraction works which considers the human being and seek the social being, Assefa creates with many people in mind.

One of her favorite artist, Nina Simone, reminds her of the importance soul touching work. Nina Simone touches your soul. When you listen to her voice, whether it be a live performance or recorded session, and there is a kind of humanity that speaks to your soul. That is the goal of her art, that is what she seeks to emulate.

What can be felt in the humming or melody of a beautifully crafted song is beyond words, and yet it be can entirely felt and understood as if it had lyrics. The same can be said about the field of Abstraction, its never truly filling or finished to some, but it is always felt and understood in some way. Assefa wants people to want to live with her pieces and experience them over time. Experiencing those contemplative moments which she hopes her pieces engender ought to demand presence.

Considering the other artist with which she shares space, in terms of the of legacy of Black Abstract Painters, her tools and aims are indicative of her place. Like the projects of Ryan Cosbert and Alteronce Gumby, Assefa’s work is characterized by social aims, the chronicling of her experimentations, and correcting the assumptions of others. What guides her process is the freedom to experience the change and continuity of that lies in understandings of presence and absence. This freedom can only occur in unhinged spaces, in gray areas, and beyond the binary.

She insists on it. She moves and finds her being in the space between what is and what could be. The duality of presence and absence is actually the transitional space she has deciphered and determined through her work. Her work calls us to join her in that space, or to determine where we can position ourselves for a boundless freedom.