Tesfaye Urgessa, A somber scene beneath the sky, 2023, Oil on canvas, 198.5 x 180 cm. Credit: Saatchi Yates

A solo exhibition by Ethiopian artist Tesfaye Urgessa, coinciding with the artist’s representation at Ethiopia’s inaugural participation in La Biennale di Venezia.

Following his exhibition Prejudice and Belonging, the London presentation is an academic survey of his overall practice, including preliminary charcoal on paper sketches and large-scale oil paintings. The selection of work demonstrates the compositional development of Urgessa’s unique works and how the artist’s personal experience of prejudice has profoundly shaped his artistic practice.

Having moved back to his hometown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Urgessa’s work delves deeper into socio-political issues of race, migration, war and displacement as he is surrounded by political turmoil in Ethiopia. The canvases are imbued with symbolic motifs such as aircraft, guns and open scripture that act as visual signifiers to prompt important questions around the dissemination of truth and violence. Representative of the artist’s signature style, his works are filled with contorted figures with overlapping limbs and withering bodies, whilst exploring the notion of family and the domestic setting. His subjects embody both strength and weakness. The figures proudly display their scars, symbolic of the battles they’ve conquered. Simultaneously, the translucency of their bodies displays a certain vulnerability as they’re laid bare to the viewer. A focus on portraiture and figurative painting reveals the artist’s classical education and early inspiration from traditional Ethi-opian iconography. Urgessa’s works are occupied with question around race, the politics of identi-ty, and the psychological tension hidden within domestic settings, as the artist carefully addresses these contemporary issues and confronts them in his tremendous paintings.

Tesfaye Urgessa comments, “I want my figures to have almost an emotional vulnerability… I want to keep them confident but at the same time fragile. They have been through something but made it. You might see a scar, but it’s not a mark of defeat.

Opening Hours

Mon-Sat 10am-6pm,
Sun 12-6pm

Location:

14 Bury Street
London, SW1Y 6AL

Text and pictures, copyright saatchi yates and the artist