Our first notable international gallery is the Addis Fine Art Gallery, located in London and Ethiopia. They serve the Horn of Africa by platforming and positioning East African artists. I spoke with the director of Addis Ababa London, Ikenna Malbert, and the co-founder, Mesai Haileleul about Addis’s position in the art world. By building a bridge between East Africa and the West, Addis Fine Art galleries fill a void of African art in Europe. Addis Fine Art takes a necessary risk by sharing artists whose work speaks to a specific East African cultural narrative, which is significant to see beyond the scope of continental Africa.
Lilac Burrell: Tell me the story and motivations behind founding Addis Fine Art Gallery.
Ikenna Malbert: Addis Ababa was founded in 2016 by Mesai Haleleleul and Rakeb Sile. The gallery was founded to bring a space and a gallery to exhibit artists from Ethiopia particularly, but more generally from neighboring countries that make up the Horn of Africa. We’ve always had some kind of space in the U.K. because Rakeb is based there; besides there, we’ve been based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Up until 2020, the main space of the gallery was in Addis Ababa.
The space here (London) opened in [2020], but up until then, we were based in Ethiopia. That’s a huge distinguishing feature. Most galleries, if they exhibit African art, there will be a gallery that’s popped up somewhere in Europe or somewhere in America and exhibits African artists. But the main point of what we’re trying to do is to ensure that the ecosystem in Addis Ababa, where Mesai is, has its flourishing, because then that feeds into what we’re doing here in the West. Before we opened in 2016, there wasn’t a gallery that had such an international reputation as ours. That’s how we’re challenging the orthodoxies of the art world.
LB: What does success look like from your lens?
IM: Success looks like how much success are our artists getting and how much success are we achieving in furthering the gallery’s original mission, which is to put artists from the Horn of Africa and Ethiopia, especially on the biggest platforms possible. For example, if we get into major art fairs such as Frieze London or Stone Basel, that is a major stamp of success for us, because we’re able to exhibit some of our artists who have been with us from the very beginning on the biggest platform.
Mesai Haileleul: It’s a team effort, to be honest. We are very lucky in many ways that we have managed in such a short time. For a gallery, eight years is such a short time.
So much more than peddling art, Addis Fine Art galleries have a cultural and intellectual connection to their art that allows them to expand their mission in authentic and unique ways.