The first UK solo exhibition of work by the late Eritrean-born American artist Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962-2012).
Opening 14 March 2025, Modern Art will present the first UK solo exhibition of work by the late Eritrean-born American artist Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962-2012). Ghebreyesus is known for his richly colourful, dreamlike paintings which combine figuration and abstraction, reflecting influences of European and American art as well as the culture and scenery of his native country of Eritrea.
Ghebreyesus was born in 1962 in Asmara, Eritrea, from where he fled as a teenager, crossing over to Sudan on foot. As a political refugee, he lived in Sudan, Italy and Germany, before finally settling in the United States. He made a home in New Haven, where he lived with his two sons and wife, the poet Elizabeth Alexander, until his unexpected death in 2012 at age 50. In the final few years of his life, he dedicated his time fully to his painting practice, despite being reluctant to exhibit his work publicly during his lifetime. He left behind close to a thousand paintings, countless photographs and works on paper.
All of the works in the exhibition are directly from the Estate and around a third have never been shown before, including the monumental ‘Map/Quilt’ painting from 1999. Like a reoccurring dream that sears the mind of its dreamer, motifs and compositions are repeated throughout Ghebreyesus’s painting oeuvre. Often, bright landscapes or seascapes emerge from an otherwise abstract set of forms on the canvas. On occasion, we encounter views of travellers confronting the natural world. In one work, a little girl walks towards a brightly coloured apple tree in an otherwise abstracted landscape Abstraction prevails in other paintings that are similar in theme, and the greens, browns and blues of the oceans and deserts summoned by the mind are stacked impenetrably like sheets or panels. A different reoccurring motif is that of a musician playing a string instrument, sitting, full of energy and vitality, housed in a warm interior; a loving portrayal of the feeling of home, or perhaps a yearning for one.
In the largest painting, ‘Map/Quilt’ from 1999, what could be a kaleidoscopic topography simultaneously evokes the patterns and colours of Eritrean textiles. Indeed many of Ghebreyesus’s paintings are deeply multifarious and unruly. His curiosity about process, his experimentation with colour, and his unique formal vocabulary convey the depth of his investment in his medium and in the historical tensions between abstraction and representation as they have evolved over the 20th century.
Ficre Ghebreyesus: 14 March – 10 May 2025
Modern Art, 7 Bury Street, London SW1Y 6AL
Wednesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm
Further Information: Exhibitions - Modern Art