TRACES OF IDENTITY - August 27 - 30, 2015

Fitsum Berhe Woldelibanos

Opening Reception: 6pm-10pm, August 27

One of East Africa’s most celebrated contemporary artists, Fitsum Berhe Woldelibanos debuts in Toronto this August in what will be his first North American solo exhibition: Traces of Identity.


Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Fitsum is an Eritrean artist living and working in Nairobi, Kenya. A testament to the coming of age of the modern and contemporary African art scene, Fitsum’s work challenges and transcends preconceptions around the traditional boundaries of the continent’s artistic narratives.

Fitsum’s practice combines graceful, effortless brushwork and vigorous gestural expressionism. In his exploration of the fundamental question of identity, his work strikes a unique balance between the subtle and the bold.

When describing his creative process, Fitsum often talks about the interplay and artificial separation between the struggle to belong and the quest for identity. For him, our sense of self is a socially and geographically situated construct that is constantly evolving. Repeated use of the same live models allows Fitsum to capture fragments of time and traces of identity, exploring the pure constant that remains when the layers of context, which we allow to define us, are stripped away.

The opening reception for the Traces of Identity exhibition will take place on Thursday 27 August 2015 at Arta Gallery in Toronto.

Curated by Jason Jabbour
(202) 531-5427
jason.jabbour@gmail.com