Biografia
Tegene Kunbi while painting - image credits: Elsa Mo
Tegene Kunbi while painting - image credits: Elsa Mo

"COLOUR IS A VOCABULARY I USE TO GIVE VOICE TO ASPECTS OF MY CULTURAL HERITAGE. EACH HUE IS A CONVERSATION WITH THE NEXT, PRODUCING A SENSE OF HARMONY AND TENSION."

Tegene Kunbi completed a Painting and Art Education degree at the Fine Arts School at the University of Addis Abeba in 2004 and went on to teach at Kotebe College Academy. With the help of the prestigious DAAD scholarship, he left Ethiopia in 2008 to study at the Universität de Künste Berlin, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts in 2011. Tegene creates compositions of different geometric shapes and colors, which express his perso- nal vision of his native landscape, fabrics, clothes, and wall paintings. Oil and textile combine to create surfaces of vibrant textures and layers of color.

 

"Colour is a vocabulary I use to give voice to aspects of my cultural heritage. Each hue is a conversation with the next, producing a sense of harmony and tension. Tonality, density and the rectilinear grid are also an integral part of the work. Through this language I convey the dynamism and complexities within my personal experience and that of my community. The underlying structure of the paintings repeats across a large body of work. This warp and weft is intrinsic to that of the Ethiopian textiles used in religious ceremonies that are at once inspiration source and more recently a material within the works. This aesthetic framework is reinforced and challenged all at once throughout the painting process which in itself is a ritual and also fight to reclaim a form of spirituality."

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