Tesfaye Urgessa

Tesfaye Urgessa
ተስፋዬ ገለታ ኡርጌሳ
Born	1983 (age 41–42) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Education	Allé School of Fine Arts and Design, State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart (MA)
Occupation	Visual artist
Known for	Painting

Tesfaye Geleta Urgessa (born 1983; Amharic: ተስፋዬ ገለታ ኡርጌሳ) is an Ethiopian-born painter. He is from Addis Ababa, and has been based in Germany since 2009.[1][2]

Career

Tesfaye Urgessa was born in 1983 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[3] He studied under Mezgebu Tessema, Tadesse Mesfin, and Bisrat Shibabaw in Ethiopia.[1] He graduated from the Allé School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa in 2006; and received a M.A. degree in 2014 from the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart in Stuttgart, Germany.[4]

Urgessa was taught by professors who had studied art in Russia in the 1970s and 1980s, when the dominant art movement was socialist realism.[5] Their focus was on the study of anatomy, which influenced Urgessa’s style.[5]

At this time, through internet research, Urgessa's practice was inspired by prominent artists in Europe including Picasso, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.[5]

Themes

Tesfaye Urgessa’s images have themes of racism, class, policy brutality, injustice in politics and power.[5]^[better source needed] He combines traditional figuration with Ethiopian iconography, Cubism, and 1980s German Neo-expressionism.[6]

Exhibitions

Urgessa exhibited in "Oltre/Beyond" at The Uffizi Gallerie in Florence in 2018,[2] and again in 2021.[7] The Uffizi also hosts his work in its permanent collection, and "Von Denen Die Auszogen" at State Galerie Villa Streccius, in Landau Germany in 2019.[6]

Urgessa will represent Ethiopia at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2024, the first time that the country will be participating with a national pavilion.[8]

Exhibitions

• 2015, Body and Soul, Sympra GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany[9]
• 2015, Free Fall, Galerie Evelyn Drewes, Hamburg, Germany[10]
• 2015, Untitled, Galerie K, Köln, Germany
• 2016, Ethiopia Today - Begegnung mit Äthiopien, Kunstation Kleinassen, Hofbieber-Kleinassen[11]
• 2016, Fremdkörper, Schacher – Raum für Kunst, Stuttgart, Germany
• 2017, Auszeit, Galerieverein Wendlingen, Wendlingen, Germany[12]
• 2017, Free Fall, Galerie Evelyn Drewes, Hamburg, Germany[13]
• 2018, No Country for Young Men, Galerieverein Leonberg, Leonberg, Germany[14]
• 2018, Oltre/Beyond, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy[15][16]
• 2019, Atemzug, Galerie Tobias Schrade, Ulm, Germany[17]
• 2019, Ich Halte Dich Festhalten, Schacher – Raum für Kunst, Stuttgart, Germany
• 2019, No Country for Young Men, Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia[18]
• 2019, Von Denen Die Auszogen, State Galerie Villa, Streccius, Landau, Germany[19]

Awards

• 2014, Akademiepreis der Kunstakademie Stuttgart, Germany[20]
• 2010, Camillo-Michele-Gloria-Preis, GasVersorgung Süddeutschland, Stuttgart, Germany

References

1. Valentine, Victoria L. (24 May 2020). "When He is Not in His Painting Studio, Tadesse Mesfin is Training the Next Generation of Ethiopian Artists". Culture Type. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
2. "Firenze. A Palazzo Pitti le opere di Tesfaye Urgessa". ArteMagazine.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
3. "Saatchi Yates open a solo show of new paintings by Tesfaye Urgessa". ArtDaily.cc. 5 June 2021. Retrieved 2024-03-20.
4. "Tesfaye Urgessa - Overview". Newchild. ^[better source needed]. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
5. "Tesfaye Urgessa". Saatchi Yates. ^[better source needed]. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
6. "The Bodies That Matter - The Figuration of Tesfaye Urgesse | Widewalls". www.widewalls.ch. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
7. Julia Buckley. "One of Italy's most famous sites just reopened with a striking change". CNN. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
8. Lawson-Tancred, Jo (2024-02-15). "Ethiopia Names Artist for Its First-Ever National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale". Artnet News. Retrieved 2024-03-20.
9. "2. Führung mit dem Kurator durch "25 - 25 - 25"". Sympra (in German). ^[better source needed]. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
10. "Tesfaye Urgessa". Evelyn Drewes Galerie. ^[better source needed]. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
11. "Ethiopia Today". Kunststation Kleinsassen (in German). Retrieved 2021-07-31.
12. "Tesfaye Urgessa: "Auszeit"". Galerieverein Wendlingen (in German). Retrieved 2021-07-31.
13. "Tesfaye Urgessa "free fall"". kunstaspekte.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-07-31.
14. "Vergangene Ausstellungen" (in German). Retrieved 2021-07-31.
15. "Tesfaye Urgessa. Beyond". Uffizi Galleries. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
16. Pogrebin, Robin (January 31, 2022). "Uffizi Gallery, Bastion of Tradition, Evolves (Slowly) With the Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
17. "Archiv - Galerie Tobias Schrade". www.galerie-tobias-schrade.de. ^[better source needed]. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
18. "No Country for Young Men | 30 December 2019 - 15 February 2020". Addis Fine Art. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
19. Meghoo, Desta (23 December 2019). "Where is the Country for Young Men?". Capital Newspaper. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
20. "Rundgang 2014: Die Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger". 2014-07-13.