When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Nahom Teklehaimanot
Addis Fine Art is pleased to present Nahom Teklehaimanot’s first solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa.
Nahom Tecklehaimanot’s (b. 1991) large-scale canvases speak to the poignant experience of migration and the unifying weight of lived experience. His works explore the emotional and physical toll inherent in leaving one’s home. He first creates an assemblage of collaged images from magazines and archives before meticulously airbrushing these pieces into a cohesive two-dimensional composition. The smooth, almost ethereal quality of the airbrushing evokes the longing for a familiar comfort, a sense of belonging that has been disrupted. The fractured and fragmented nature of the disparate images, however, reveals the stark reality of displacement. The airbrush’s hazy touch, a reminder of fading memories and the life left behind, stands in contrast with the jarring edges of the composition, symbolising the sudden and often traumatic transition of migration. The works at once address the pain and uncertainty of displacement, and also embrace the resilience and adaptability that come with navigating a new environment.
Nahom Teklehaimanot was born in Addis Ababa and grew up between Ethiopia and Eritrea. He is a self-taught artist, who developed his distinctive airbrush technique inspired by the simple artistry of children’s lullabies and songs. A strong believer in artistic freedom, his paintings incorporate a range of symbols, always adapting to new concepts to articulate struggles relating to race, oppression, culture, and the global condition. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition since he attended The Noldor Residency in Accra, Ghana in 2023. He has previously had two solo shows, The First Amendment, The Gallery, Asmara, Eritrea (2017) and Untitled, The Gallery, Asmara, Eritrea (2019). He has participated in several group exhibitions including Unspoken Wars, AKKA Project Gallery, Venice, Italy, Figure This II, Sarah Kravitz Gallery, London, UK and Fictions, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya.
