Tadesse Mesfin (b. 1953) lives and works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. With an artistic career spanning more than five decades, Mesfin’s painterly style has been greatly influenced by his early education under the renowned Ethiopian modernist Gebre Kristos Desta. He then spent seven years studying at the Soviet Union Leningrad Academy of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, where he received an MFA in painting before returning to Ethiopia in 1984.
Alongside his own figurative painting practice, Mesfin has also served for several decades as a professor at the influential Addis Ababa University Alle School of Fine Art and Design. Among the generations of painters he has taught are Addis Gezehagn, Ermias Kifleyesus, Merikokeb Berhanu, and Tesfaye Urgessa.
Mesfin’s latest work is a continuation of his ongoing series celebrating the women who work as small-holder vendors in markets scattered across Ethiopian cities, who can typically be found kneeling among their wares awaiting customers. Often overlooked by society, in Mesfin’s work these women are brought to the foreground, and the observer is invited to appreciate their importance to the communities they serve. The paintings defy the limitations of gravity and perspective, as the figures seem to float, their forms often abstracted through loosely defined brush strokes. Following the Ethiopian modernist tradition of including Amharic alphabetic script in paintings, Mesfin interprets the human figures as personified lettering, elongating and flattening them into horizontal rows.
Mesfin’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in London, Addis Ababa, Stockholm, Lagos, Dubai, and Johannesburg.