It is one of the great quandaries for smaller and mid-sized galleries. You’ve spent years working with an artist, but when you feel they need a bigger platform than you can provide, how do you help them progress to the next level without losing them to a mega-gallery forever?
Such was the question facing Rakeb Sile and Mesai Haileleul—who co-founded Addis Fine Art in Addis Ababa in 2016—following the inclusion of Merikokeb Berhanu, an artist they have represented since 2017, in the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Born in Ethiopia in 1977, Berhanu graduated in 2002 from the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa, where she studied under Ethiopian Modernist painters such as Tadesse Mesfin. The influence such artists had on Behranu—who still lives and works in Addis Ababa—is palpable in her vibrant semi-abstracted paintings, which focus on the tense rift and disconnect between nature and technology.
Berhanu’s appearance at the Biennale drew further international attention and it was at this point that Addis Fine Art started looking for collaborators to grow her international career and collector base. Various galleries interested in working with Berhanu got in touch, but it was Esther Schipper, who has galleries in Berlin, Paris and Seoul, and the New York-based dealer James Cohan who seemed the best fit. Today (28 March), the three galleries announced their joint representation of Berhanu.
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