Ethiopia

Tesfaye Urgessa collects “things” and places them in a conceptual “basement”, tiny images, large ideas, a hand, a torso, turned feet, a song. It is an eternal space of precious objects and ideas. “The basement is where you keep what is important to you”.
In Prejudice and Belonging Tesfaye Urgessa paints a number of canvases at the same time, say five or ten. “I look at my paintings and then kind of imagine in which painting this particular certain image might work, so I try on one canvas, sometimes it works and I continue and sometimes it doesn’t work and I have to destroy it.” He moves around the studio from one canvas to the other seeking “the chemical reaction” to initiate a “chain reaction”.
This exhibition arises over the thirteen years he spent in Germany, helping with translation in immigration camps: “People tend to think I am painting victims in my canvases but it’s completely different. The figures hold all kinds of emotions, fragility as well as confidence. It is the figure presented without any judgement. It is saying this is who I am, this is what I am.”
In Prejudice and Belonging Urgessa is “not following natural laws” but the laws of painting. His figures are not defined by their scars but by the incredible ability to heal.