Legendary singer Mahmoud Ahmed is scheduled to perform at 6 pm at Intercontinental Hotel tonight. In addition to Mahmoud, contemporary artists Zeritu Kebede and Sami Dan are expected to highlight the stage. Renowned for his hit songs such as Tizita, Mela Mela, Alawokshiligim and Teresash Woy, Mahmoud is endowed with a gift of transcending the generation gap. Born in Addis Ababa Mercato area, Mahmoud pursued music at an early age and is still persistent in pushing after four decades of stay in music. Coming from a humble background, his professional music career started by chance when he was hanging out with members of Emperor Haileselassie’s Imperial Bodyguard Band. With an electric stage performance and unique talent, it only took him a short time to catch people’s ear. After cutting his first single with Venus Band “Nafqot New Yegodagn” in 1971, Mahmoud continued to record with several bands for Amha and Kaifa record labels throughout the 1970s. The entrance fee is 900 birr where while couples’ fee is 1400 birr.
Addis Fine Art @ Cape Town Art Fair
Taking place in the heart of Cape Town’s city centre at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from February 17-19, the fair will also show a variety of sections dedicated to large scale installations, emerging artists and online art platforms. Addis Fine Art is one of the exhibitors presenting the works of Ethiopian artists Merikokekeb Berhanu, Girma Berta, Wosene Worke Korsof, Leikun Nahusenay and Michael Tsegaye. Galleries, which represent the quality and multiplicity of the thriving contemporary African art scene such as Stevenson, Goodman Gallery, Galerie Gecile Fakhoury, Blank Projects and Art Lagos, are part of the Cape Town art fair. Increasing the size and scope, CTAF 2017 will include a new section, UNFRAMED, dedicated to ambitious, large-scale works created by Gallery MOMO artist Mary Sibande, Everard Read artist Liza Grobler, and Katharien de Villiers and Michael Linders from Up and Coming Gallery, SMITH. The works will be strongly interactive, encouraging fairgoers to enter into a more stimulating dialogue with contemporary art.
Aida Muluneh to participate @ 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair New York 2017
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair will return to New York from May 5-7, 2017 at Brooklyn’s pioneer works in Redhook for the third consecutive year. 1:54 New York 2017 welcomes 19 galleries including nine new galleries, showcasing the work of more than 60 artists including the likes of internationally renowned figures such as Ibrahim El-Salahi, William Kendtridge, Malick Sidibe, Billi Zangewa, to name a few. Born in Ethiopia in 1974, Aida left the country at a young age and spent an itinerant childhood between Yemen and England. After several years in a boarding school in Cyprus, she finally settled in Canada in 1985. In 2001, she graduated with a degree from the Communications Department of Howard University in Washington DC majoring in Film. After graduation she worked as a photojournalist for The Washington Post. Her work has been exhibited at the National Museum of African Art in Washington DC. She is also the founder and director of the first international photography festival in Addis Ababa – the Addis Foto Fest.
Dawit Abebe’s work in “Everything Exist Now” group show in London
A group show featuring drawing-based works, Everything Exists Now (January 8 to February 18, 2017) at Kristin Hjellegjede Gallery, brings together 13 artists who each reflect on their current moment through personal, political and historical viewpoints, united by the common lens of time.
Hailing from different backgrounds and artistic practices, the final whole is a nod to the concept of Eternalism, a space in which each moment exists in and of itself, an endless loop in which all these points exist at once.
If, indeed, the idea really is that Everything Exists Now, then all the moments are present simultaneously. The artists are linked to each other. For example, lectures series of Chinese artist Zhu Wei critiques the darker side of a rapidly evolving China. If Zhu Wei examines the effects of social change in China, Dawit Abebe’s mutual identity mixed media works examine the impact of technology on individuals in Ethiopia, but also the effect on social interaction as a whole.