Addis Fine Art is pleased to present Cellular Universe, Merikokeb Berhanu's third solo show with the gallery. Merikokeb's vibrant works at first glance appear abstract: swirls of colour circulate organically across the canvas creating imagery that mesmerises and draws in the viewer. Closer inspection reveals recognisable forms; familiar patterns from the natural world start to emerge, creating a mysterious almost subterranean atmosphere. Life-generating forms, such as orange seed pods, embryos, fallopian tubes, and pulsing cells, are set against a network of gaunt, drooping figures, and surreal earthly structures. 

Absorbed by questions of life and death and the human condition, Merikokeb draws inspiration from nature and life itself. She uses recurrent themes from nature to referring to personal concepts and emotions. For example, her image of the brain situated outside the body, signifies imbalances of life caused by human conciseness and ingenuity. With repeated references to cells, "the building blocks of life" in both human and organic forms, Merikokeb reminds us that all life is interconnected. She aims to create an opposition to the imbalance and injustice she sees in the world around her. The embryo, another recurrent symbol, represents the nurturing and birth of people's ideas and opinions. Merikokeb also embraces ambiguity in her works by leaving them untitled, thereby allowing the viewer to interpret the enigmatic symbolic language for themselves.

“I have never tried to communicate my paintings with words; I am always after the forms, lines and arrangement that can express the visual equivalent of my feelings and thoughts. I want the viewers of my work to ‘hear’ what the images have to say through their own power. Sensation can be experienced through elements of art. The life that we are passing through, light, line, the complexity and density of what surrounds us, the thick fog and smoke, happiness and hope, misery and bliss, all elements push me to think and paint. And let my perception be crystallised through visual elements as a form of language.”

- Merikokeb Berhanu