Tesfaye Bekele (b.1982) is a painter living in Addis Ababa. Tesfaye searches for order within complex systems, a contemplative process that investigates his personal relationship with time and space. He zooms in and out of segments and subsections of the physical world, taking time to enrich his work in great detail.

Tesfaye’s work is rooted in nostalgia and childhood memories. His works reflect the conflict and struggle inherent to his artmaking process in the lines and forms he traces across the canvas.

He 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.

Tesfaye Bekele graduated from the Addis Ababa University Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in Art Education in 2010. He currently teaches at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design and regularly participates in art exhibitions and activities in Ethiopia and abroad.

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