Exposure, Booth 223
Addis Fine Art is pleased to present a solo booth of new works on canvas and earlier works on paper by Merikokeb Berhanu at EXPO Chicago, 2024.
Merikokeb Berhanu (b. 1977, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Addis Ababa University, Alle School Fine Arts and Design in 2002, where she studied painting under the tutelage of a generation of Ethiopian modernist painters. Following her graduation, Merikokeb and her contemporaries founded an artist-run studio and exhibition space called the Nubia Studio (2004) with the goal of increasing their visibility and long-term career opportunities in a region where the arts have historically been under-supported. The next fifteen years were spent quietly developing her work and crafting her idiosyncratic visual language that toes the line between pure abstraction and recognisable form. Merikokeb’s immigration to Maryland, USA in 2017 marked a time of sudden and intense change in all aspects of her life, a shift that is nowhere more evident than in her paintings. While Merikokeb’s work has always had a focus on lifeforms and biomorphic imagery, at this point she started to gravitate towards the more vibrant hues that define her latest paintings. New symbols – a circuit board structure, the skeletal remains of fish – began to emerge throughout Merikokeb’s work as she grappled with the implications of a society estranged from nature.
Merikokeb has featured in several solo and two-person exhibitions, including Tête-Bêche: Abbas Akhavan and Merikokeb Berhanu, Bortolami Gallery, New York (2024), A World Grows Within, Addis Fine Art, London (2023), and Beneath the Surface: The Mysteries of Living and Dying, Addis Fine Art, London (2019). She has also been included in group presentations such as Making Their Mark: Art by Women in the Shah Garg Collection, curated by Cecilia Alemani, Shah Garg Foundation, New York (2023), Milk of Dreams: The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2022), From Modern to Contemporary: Artists from the Horn of Africa and Diaspora, CFHILL, Stockholm (2021), and Where Cloudy Waters Collide, Pippy Houldsworth, London, UK (2022). Her work is part of the travelling exhibition Ethiopia at the Crossroads at Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (2023), Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (2024), and Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo (2024).
Merikokeb’s works are in several public collections, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD, USA, Denver Art Museum, CO, USA, High Museum (promised gift), GA, USA, Inhotim Museum, Brumadinho, Brazil, and Foundation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
The artist is also included in private collections, including the Shah Garg Collection and Rachofsky Collection.
