Lot 54

Tibebe Terffa (Ethiopian, born 1978)
Untitled l, 2016
Signed ‘_signature_ 2016’ (lower right)
Acrylic on canvas
90 x 74 cm
Ksh 395,000 – 510,000
(US$) 3,500 – 4,500
Provenance: direct from the artist

Sold Ksh 457,860

Tibebe Terffa is one of Ethiopia’s most prominent living artists. His philosophical approach to painting combines expressions of his everyday environment with traditional and contemporary cultural references to create open symbolic works.

As can be seen in Untitled, 2016, Tibebe often uses an interplay between foreground and background, both as a means to sensitise the viewer to the existence of another plane, and as a way to emotionally and spiritually journey there.

Terffa studied Painting at the Addis Ababa School of Fine Art, graduating in 1973. For some years Terffa worked as an arts educator, then an illustrator for a publishing house. He has been a full-time studio artist working from his home in Addis Ababa since 1984. Terffa has had numerous solo and selected group exhibitions in Ethiopia, as well as in the USA, Spain, Germany and Canada, where he has also taken three artist residencies.