Tesfaye Geleta Urgessa (born 1983; ) is an Ethiopian-born painter. He is from Addis Ababa, and has been based in Germany since 2009.
Career Tesfaye Urgessa was born in 1983 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He studied under Mezgebu Tessema, Tadesse Mesfin, and Bisrat Shibabaw in Ethiopia. He graduated from the Allé School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa in 2006; and received a M.A. degree in 2014 from the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart in Stuttgart, Germany.
Urgessa was taught by professors who had studied art in Russia in the 1970s and 1980s, when the dominant art movement was socialist realism. Their focus was on the study of anatomy, which influenced Urgessa’s style.
At this time, through internet research, Urgessa's practice was inspired by prominent artists in Europe including Picasso, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
Urgessa is represented by White Cube gallery.
Themes Tesfaye Urgessa’s images have themes of racism, class, police brutality, injustice in politics and power. He combines traditional figuration with Ethiopian iconography, Cubism, and 1980s German Neo-expressionism.
Exhibitions Urgessa exhibited in "Oltre/Beyond" at The Uffizi Gallerie in Florence in 2018, and again in 2021. The Uffizi also hosts his work in its permanent collection, and "Von Denen Die Auszogen" at State Galerie Villa Streccius, in Landau Germany in 2019.
Urgessa represented Ethiopia at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2024, the first time that the country has participated with a national pavilion.
Exhibitions 2015, Body and Soul, Sympra GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany 2015, Free Fall, Galerie Evelyn Drewes, Hamburg, Germany 2015, Untitled, Galerie K, Köln, Germany 2016, Ethiopia Today - Begegnung mit Äthiopien, Kunstation Kleinassen, Hofbieber-Kleinassen 2016, Fremdkörper, Schacher – Raum für Kunst, Stuttgart, Germany 2017, Auszeit, Galerieverein Wendlingen, Wendlingen, Germany 2017, Free Fall, Galerie Evelyn Drewes, Hamburg, Germany 2018, No Country for Young Men, Galerieverein Leonberg, Leonberg, Germany 2018, Oltre/Beyond, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy 2019, Atemzug, Galerie Tobias Schrade, Ulm, Germany 2019, Ich Halte Dich Festhalten, Schacher – Raum für Kunst, Stuttgart, Germany 2019, No Country for Young Men, Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2019, Von Denen Die Auszogen, State Galerie Villa, Streccius, Landau, Germany 2025, Roots of Resilience, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK
Awards 2014, Akademiepreis der Kunstakademie Stuttgart, Germany 2010, Camillo-Michele-Gloria-Preis, GasVersorgung Süddeutschland, Stuttgart, Germany
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