Workneh Bezu Ethiopia, b. 1978

Biography

“Art is a fundamental necessity for me. Art is the modality that reflects a thought. My life is art, art is nature. Through art, my soul is expressed in this world; I don’t think I could survive without art. For me I need art like the air I breathe, my dreams are revealed through my art.”

Workneh Bezu Kassa was born in 1978 in Ethiopia and currently lives and works in Addis Ababa.

Workneh began drawing from a very young age, taking drawing lessons in elementary school and showing great artistic abilities. He always considered art both his passion and his dream and after being enrolled at the prestigious Addis Ababa University School of Fine Art and Design, studying under some of the masters of Ethiopian painting and sculptor, Workneh gained the techniques and academic skills he needed to bring his dreams to reality.

Workneh experiments with different art forms such as paintings, sculptures, graphics, and video works. Later on, the artist shifted his attention from circles to female figures. The artist creates artworks that feature mothers and children, their emotional connection and that represent an array of human emotions such as sadness, happiness, frustrations, and many more. Workneh Bezu’s latest artworks are inspired by Eve and the apple tree.

Workneh is best known as the pioneer of puppet and short animation film in Ethiopia.

He's widely known as a writer, a director, and a producer of the first children’s film in puppet film in Ethiopia, entitled Sasase fable ye sasase teret.

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