2008 Woodie Awards
Guilford hosts Ethiopian artist Wosene
Brice Tarleton
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
A collection of work by international artist Wosene Worke Kosrof is currently on display in the Hege Library Art Gallery. On March 20, he joined Professor of Art Roy Nydorf and professional tutor Douglas Smith for an open dialogue to discuss his art.
"I always claim that there is a spice in my painting. One must come closer to sniff it," said Wosene during the dialogue.
The written symbols of Amharic, Wosene's native language, play a significant role in all the work on display, often forming the most visible shapes in each painting.
Allyson Purpura, consulting curator for the University of Michigan Museum of Art, said, "In Wosene's hands ... words became images, as he stretched and inverted their letters, and scattered them across the canvas … Wosene is a master translator of human experience."
Wosene said, "The symbols bring my culture to me and at the same time I recreate my culture with the symbols, producing a unique international visual language ... Letters become every possible design, everything I can think of. Words always have power for me."
At the open dialogue, Wosene discussed influences upon his painting, from his cultural roots to American food. A major contribution to his development as an artist has been jazz music, which he plays for inspiration while painting.
"I don't see the color of a trumpet or a drum, but I imagine it. I try to paint that sound. I try to get to a place where I can smell it."
Wosene was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1950, and graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa in 1972. Due to the oppressive political climate that resulted from the 1974 military coup, he left Ethiopia and immigrated to the United States, where he has lived for more than 25 years. Wosene's paintings incorporate aspects of both cultures.
Holland Cotter, writer for The New York Times, described Wosene's work as "(a blend of) written letters of Ethiopia with Western-style gestural painting. The results are abstract, but richly coded, with fractured texts, personal symbols, and a palette of jewel-like colors - reds, yellows, and greens - associated with Ethiopian iconic painting."
Terry Hammond, director and curator of the Hege Library Art Gallery, said, "This guy is a painter's painter ... the way he uses paint (building, layering, pushing it around the canvas, scratching through it with the end of a brush, using a palette knife, etc.) is something to which others, artists especially, will respond."
Wosene's work is shown in the permanent collections of museums in Africa, the United States and Europe. He is the first African-born Ethiopian artist to have a traveling solo museum exhibition in the United States.
"His work is impressive, even to non-artists," said first-year Anne Marie Drolet. "It is vivid and engaging, and it really shows the connections between two vastly different cultures. That alone is commendable."
Wosene's art will be on display in the Hege Library Art Gallery through May 4.
"I always claim that there is a spice in my painting. One must come closer to sniff it," said Wosene during the dialogue.
The written symbols of Amharic, Wosene's native language, play a significant role in all the work on display, often forming the most visible shapes in each painting.
Allyson Purpura, consulting curator for the University of Michigan Museum of Art, said, "In Wosene's hands ... words became images, as he stretched and inverted their letters, and scattered them across the canvas … Wosene is a master translator of human experience."
Wosene said, "The symbols bring my culture to me and at the same time I recreate my culture with the symbols, producing a unique international visual language ... Letters become every possible design, everything I can think of. Words always have power for me."
At the open dialogue, Wosene discussed influences upon his painting, from his cultural roots to American food. A major contribution to his development as an artist has been jazz music, which he plays for inspiration while painting.
"I don't see the color of a trumpet or a drum, but I imagine it. I try to paint that sound. I try to get to a place where I can smell it."
Wosene was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1950, and graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa in 1972. Due to the oppressive political climate that resulted from the 1974 military coup, he left Ethiopia and immigrated to the United States, where he has lived for more than 25 years. Wosene's paintings incorporate aspects of both cultures.
Holland Cotter, writer for The New York Times, described Wosene's work as "(a blend of) written letters of Ethiopia with Western-style gestural painting. The results are abstract, but richly coded, with fractured texts, personal symbols, and a palette of jewel-like colors - reds, yellows, and greens - associated with Ethiopian iconic painting."
Terry Hammond, director and curator of the Hege Library Art Gallery, said, "This guy is a painter's painter ... the way he uses paint (building, layering, pushing it around the canvas, scratching through it with the end of a brush, using a palette knife, etc.) is something to which others, artists especially, will respond."
Wosene's work is shown in the permanent collections of museums in Africa, the United States and Europe. He is the first African-born Ethiopian artist to have a traveling solo museum exhibition in the United States.
"His work is impressive, even to non-artists," said first-year Anne Marie Drolet. "It is vivid and engaging, and it really shows the connections between two vastly different cultures. That alone is commendable."
Wosene's art will be on display in the Hege Library Art Gallery through May 4.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
ERMIAS DEJENU
posted 3/31/07 @ 4:58 PM EST
I believe what you, wosene are doing as an artist will contribute as historical collage of two separate yet bonded culture of humanity. As for the alphabets I am sure you are aware of their power not only as letters but also in numbers too. (Continued…)
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