Booth E05
Addis Fine Art will return to 1-54 London with a group show by Atong Atem, Dawit Adnew and Yasmeen Abdullah.
Atong Atem is an Ethiopian born, South Sudanese artist living in Melbourne. Atem works primarily with photography and video to explore contemporary identity through portraiture and in particular the fluidity of migrant narratives and postcolonial practices in the African diaspora.
Atem explores concepts of home and identity through a critical and sentimental lens and references the works of photographers Malick Sidibe and Seydou Keita as well as science fiction writers such as Octavia Butler as her aides in navigating these liminal spaces.
Dawit Adnew is based in Addis Ababa and attended the Alle School of Fine Art and Design in Addis Ababa. Occasionally working from images or models, Dawit’s process is highly experimental. His practice is informed by studies in masks and iconography, and his use of patterns and fabric emerges from his experience as a textile designer. Surrounded by blooming flowers and creeping foliage, the women depicted in his canvases seem to communicate wordlessly with one another, drawing the viewer into their silent dialogue.
Inspired by the works of Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, Yasmeen Abdullah aims to explore the emotional links between poetry and painting. Her use of vivid colour and the presence of nondescript humanlike figures in the foreground adds a certain otherworldliness to the otherwise quotidian backdrops of her paintings.
