1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair — Five Artists To Watch

[...] Ethiopian multidisciplinary artist Ermias Kifleyesus (b. 1974) interrogates the prevalent Western viewpoint of African history and its omission of the truths of colonisation. Using discarded paintings he finds in Amsterdam's second-hand markets, Kifleyesus deconstructs them, burying and unravelling their surfaces to evoke the act of uncovering obscured layers of history that facilitated Western dominance, such as the theft of natural resources and human oppression. His intricate and labour-intensive process encourages viewers to look beyond the exterior and explore new perspectives, questioning historical notions that have been accepted as the objective reality. [...]