Ashenafe Mestika Ethiopia, b. 1987
Biography
"The information I collect allows me to understand the past and present social and socio-political practice of the society.”
Ashenafe Metika was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1987 where he lives and works.
He graduated from Entoto Polytechnic College where he received a 10+3 Diploma in fine art, specializing in painting, and AAU Alle School of Fine Art & Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 2020.
He is interested in social and socio-political issues that become the inspiration for his work. He tries to connect himself with his surroundings and observes people's interactions with each other and the stories of their life experiences. As a visual artist, he likes to navigate in total length the different possibilities with which the subject can be represented till he understands it fully in its meaning and form.
He uses different visual elements such as drawing, painting, video and photography. In his drawing and painting, he prefers to use complementary tones as for him this reflects the theme of complimentary ideas and instances in nature. His drawing tones are predominantly black and red. This is derived from the Coptic Orthodox Church manuscript. In the Coptic tradition, the manuscripts are written in black while the names of God, the angels and the saints are written in red. In his paintings, Mestika uses red for figures that are surrounded by black and with other colors that are subordinate to the art work.
Exhibitions
