Wosene Worke Kosrof ::
Biographical Sketch
Born in 1950 in the Arat Kilo district of Addis Ababa, Wosene Worke Kosrof is a
contemporary fine artist who has achieved international acclaim. Formally trained at the
Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts, he completed a BFA with distinction in 1972. Then, as
a Ford Foundation Talent Scholar, he was awarded an MFA in 1980 from Howard
University in Washington, DC.
Over the past four decades, Wosene (his professional name) has created an
internationally recognized artistic signature in his work by being the first contemporary
Ethiopian-born artist to use the script forms – fiedel – of his native Amharic as a core
element in his paintings and sculptures.
Museums that have his works in their permanent collections include the National
Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (DC);
The Newark Museum (NJ); Neuberger Museum (NY); Indianapolis Museum of Art (IN);
Birmingham Museum of Art (AL); Fowler Museum of UCLA (CA); Samuel Harn Museum
(FL); Krannert Art Museum, (IL): Fleming Museum (VT), the Völkerkunde Museum,
Switzerland. He exhibits recent works in select galleries, and his paintings are included
in many international private and corporate collections.
Wosene lives and has his studio in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
Artist Statement
I am the first Ethiopian-born painter to transform Amharic script forms into
contemporary fine art, and these script-images have now become recognized
internationally as my ‘artistic signature.’ Amharic, derived from the ancient language
Ge’ez, and a major modern language of Ethiopia, is one of the few written systems
indigenous to Africa. Though Ethiopia has centuries-old traditions of two-dimensional
art that include script, such as Coptic icon paintings underscored by written
narratives, the script symbols themselves were never developed as a fine art form.
During the past thirty-five years, I have produced five major series of paintings in
which I have defined an ‘aesthetics of script’: Graffiti Magic (1980-1987); Africa: The
New Alphabet (1988-1994); Color of Words (1995-2003); Words: From Spoken to
Seen (2004-2008); and, in my current series WordPlay (2009-present), painting has
become an intense process of ‘dialoguing’ with the script images, exploring the
versatility and playfulness of their surfaces and interiors, dissecting their ‘skeletal’
structures, observing the ways they move, interact, and intersect. I elongate, distort,
invert, dissect, and recombine their shapes and volumes, and turn them inside out to
discover their moods, tempers, and personalities. On canvas, the script images are
divested of literal meanings and become gesture, dance, music, movement, and
stories of the human drama.
I don’t pre-sketch paintings; my process is inchoate and exploratory: the interplay of
accident and intention, of mastery and uncertainty, of curiosity and discovery. Quickdrying acrylics allow me to easily build and destroy colors and figures on canvas. I
use a wide-ranging palette, from bold primary colors to muted tones that look
almost repellent on my palette, but that smoothly integrate into a composition; to
black and white paintings with bare touches of color; to works in several tones of a
single color.
Since my student years at the School of Fine Art in Addis Ababa (1967-1972),
American jazz has asserted a significant influence on my painting. Like jazz music,
the script provides a repertoire of dense, yet supple, elements that lend themselves
well to visual improvisation. Jazz also influences my sense of composition: like
improvisational music, the language symbols can be juxtaposed on canvas in
nonverbal ‘word-plays’ to create a visual language of form and color, rhythm and
movement.
STUDIO ARTS EXPERIENCE
1972 - present
Professional studio artist: painting and sculpture
2000 - 2001
Artist-in-residence, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar,
VA
1996
Artist-in-residence, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy
1984
Artist-in-residence, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar,
VA
COLLECTIONS
National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of FL, Gainesville
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana
Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT
U.S. Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Völkerkunde Museum, Zürich, Switzerland
Peter Gray Museum, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
United Nations, New York, NY
Rockefeller Collection, New York, NY
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Zora Neale Hurston Museum, Orlando, FL
City of Addis Ababa Museum, Ethiopia
Bank of Hanover, Hanover, NH
Alza Corporation, Mountain View, CA
Tobias Management LLC, New York, NY
Highland Hospital, Oakland, CA
University of CA Medical Center, Davis, CA
Chikamori Hospital, Kochi, Japan
Howard University, Washington, DC
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, MD
Paul Herzog and Jolene Tritt Collection, Burlington, VT
* and many international private collections
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015
Gallery of Fine Art (GAFRA), London, UK
Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan
2014
The Loft Galeria, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Majlis Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Terra Firma Gallery, Sonoma, CA
2013
Gallery of African Art, London, UK
2012
Skoto Gallery, New York, NY
Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan
2011
Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
(Exhibition from the collection of Paul Herzog and Jolene Tritt)
Bekris Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010
National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
(Exhibition of paintings and sculptures)
2009
Skoto Gallery, New York, NY
Madelyn Jordon Fine Arts, Scarsdale, NY
2008
Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Contemporary African Arts, New York, NY
2007
Addis Art, Los Angeles, CA
Guilford College Gallery of Art, Greensboro, NC
2006
Mexican Heritage Museum, San Jose, CA
Skoto Gallery, New York, NY
2005
St. George Gallery, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2004
The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Skoto Gallery, New York, NY
Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan
2003
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Galeria Botello, San Juan, PR
2002
Skoto Gallery, New York, NY
Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan
Museum of Antigua/Barbuda, St. Johns, Antigua, West Indies
2001
Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Folkens Museum, Etnografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
2000
Parish Gallery, Washington, DC
1999
Spirits in Stone Gallery, Sausalito, CA
1997
Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan
1996
St. George Gallery, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1995
Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1994
Parish Gallery, Washington, DC
1993
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
1991
Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock, VT
1990
Cottonbrook Gallery, Stowe, VT
1988
The World Bank, Washington, DC
AVA Gallery, Hanover, VT
1987
Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
1986
United Nations, New York, NY
1984
Albert Gordon Art Gallery, New York, NY
1980
Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
1974
Belvedere Gallery, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
SELECTED TWO-PERSON AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014
Sharjah Art Museum Calligraphy Biennial, Sharjah, UAE
Paul Mahder Gallery, Healdsburg, CA
2013
Cantor Museum, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
i.d.e.a Museum, Mesa, AZ
2011
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2009
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Loft Galeria, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
2007
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2006
Parish Gallery, Washington, DC
Pan American Art Gallery, Dallas, TX
2005
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2004
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2003
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
1999
Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
1997
Wright Gallery, New York, NY
1996
Malmo Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden
1995
Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
Zora Neale Hurston Museum, Orlando, FL
1994
Euphrat Museum, Cupertino, CA
1993
Contemporary African Art, New York, NY
1992
Crocker Museum, Annual juried exhibition, Sacramento, CA
John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA
1991
Zweigmuseum Schloss Oettingen, Oettingen, Germany
1990
Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT
1988
Gallery 2, Woodstock, VT
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, MD
1987
Bernson Gallery, Ashland, NH
1986
Wood Art Gallery, Montpelier, VT
1985
Stamford Art, Stamford, CT
Gallery 401, Providence, RI
1984
Meridian House, Washington, DC
1982
Pelington Gallery, Columbus, OH
1981
Franz Bader, Washington, DC
Commonwealth Institute, London, England
1980
Haitian Museum, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Elan Gallery, Bethesda, MD
1978
Gallery Paa Ya Paa, Nairobi, Kenya
1977
City Hall, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1976
Organization of African Unity, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1975
Hall de L’Information, Menelik, Afar & Isas, Djibouti
French Cultural Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
1973
Union Carbide Hall, New York, NY
1972
Africa Creates ’72, New York, NY
SELECTED EXHIBITION REVIEWS IN:
The New York Times
Washington Post
San Francisco Chronicle
Winston-Salem Journal
Philadelphia Tribune
San Jose Mercury News
El Nuevo Dia (San Juan, PR)
African Arts
ArtWeek Magazine
SELECTED GUEST LECTURES/WORKSHOPS
2013
College of the Coast, Puerto Vallarta, MX
2012
Butte College, Chico, CA
Wharton School Alumni Association, San Francisco, CA
2011
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2010
School of Art and Design, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
2009
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2007
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Guilford College Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
2006
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
2005
Columbia College, Chicago, IL
UNESCO Symposium on Art Education, Newark, NJ
2004
Painting used as poster for Biennial Poetry Festival,
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Hillsborough, NJ
The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
Clark University, Worcester, MA
2003
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
2001
Folkens Museum Etnografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
1999
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
1996
Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy
1995
Alliance Francaise, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1993
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
1992
Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA
1991
Mendocino Arts Center, Mendocino, CA
CA College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1987
African Studies Association Conference, Denver, CO
1986
Vermont College, Montpelier, VT
1985
Goddard College, Plainfield, VT
1984
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
1982
Howard University, Washington, DC
EDUCATION
1980
MFA, painting and drawing, Howard University, Washington, DC;
Ford Foundation Talent Scholar
1972
BFA, painting, drawing, design, School of Fine Arts, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. Graduated with distinction