Addis Gezehagn

Addis Gezahegn (b. 1978 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is a painter whose practice is rooted in a deep and lifelong engagement with his city. Having developed his artistic foundation at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design at Addis Ababa University, he graduated with a Diploma and BFA in 2011 before establishing himself as a full-time studio artist, working primarily in painting whilst maintaining an ongoing dialogue with printmaking and serigraphy.

Gezahegn's work orbits three recurring themes—forest and landscape, the human figure and cityscape—with his Floating Cities series representing the most sustained and celebrated thread of his practice. Drawing on the sensorial, philosophical and social fabric of Addis Ababa, the series transforms the city's anarchic built environment, its fog-laden rainy seasons, and the coded visual languages of its streets into semi-abstract compositions in which buildings, homes, and entire neighbourhoods appear to levitate. Colour serves as his primary departure point, functioning as both a conceptual anchor and an emotional register.

‘In Floating Cities, everything levitates’, Gezahegn explains. ‘I'm affirming it's possible to disrupt laws, directions, formalities—no matter how improbable it seems, we can levitate.’

Inspired by pioneering Ethiopian artists, including Wosene Worke Kosrof, Tadesse Mesfin, Mezgebu Tessema and Zerihun Yetmgeta, Gezahegn understands the city's inhabitants as its first and foremost artists—his role being to decipher and translate the tapestry they collectively weave. He made his international debut at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in 2017, followed by a sold-out solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa in 2018. Subsequent exhibitions include Art Dubai (2019), his first European solo show at Addis Fine Art, London (2022), and a solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa (2024). He lives and works in Addis Ababa.

Contributor: Sara Abdu Bushra (Worldmaking within Politics of Sight and Space)

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