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Estate of Ficre Ghebreyesus
1962-2012

Estate of Ficre Ghebreyesus 1962-2012

  • Biography
  • WORKS
  • Select Exhibitions
  • NEWS & EVENTS
  • PRESS
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • Contact Form
  • Ficre Ghebreyesus populated his works with intricate, highly personal experiences as a citizen of the world. Born in Eritrea during...
    Red Room, c.2007
    Collection The Baltimore Museum of Art; purchase with exchange funds from the Pearlstone Family Fund and partial gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
    Ficre Ghebreyesus populated his works with intricate, highly personal experiences as a citizen of the world. Born in Eritrea during its War of Independence (1961–1991), he left as a teenaged refugee to Sudan, Italy, and Germany, before finally settling in the United States where he received an MFA from the Yale School of Art, and was awarded the Carol Schlossberg Prize for Excellence in Painting at graduation. Ghebreyesus continued his lifelong activism for Eritrean independence alongside studying painting, printmaking, several languages, and working as the executive chef and co-owner of New Haven’s Caffé Adulis. Operating fluidly between abstraction and figuration, Ghebreyesus’s matte acrylic and oil paintings suggest the non-linear form of dreams, memories, and storytelling. Landscapes flow seamlessly into sea and skyscapes, teeming with biodiversity, while boat hulls and angels’s wings are fashioned from colorful geometric shapes echoing Eritrean textiles. In a style distinguishably his own, Ghebreyesus embraces the complexity of his personal history built upon an evolving understanding of identity and home.
  • "When I paint I am accompanied by dissoances, syncopations, and the ultimate will for
    life and moral order of goodness."
    —Ficre Ghebreyesus
  • While Ghebreyesus turned down most opportunities to show during his short lifetime, posthumous solo institutional exhibitions of his work include...

    Untitled, c. 1991

    While Ghebreyesus turned down most opportunities to show during his short lifetime, posthumous solo institutional exhibitions of his work include Ficre Ghebreyesus: City with a River Running Through at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California and POLYCHROMASIA: Selected Paintings by Ficre Ghebreyesus at Artspace, New Haven, Connecticut. Galerie Lelong began representing the Estate in 2019 and held the solo exhibition Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue in 2020. In 2022, Ghebreyesus’s work was showcased in the 59th Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams. His work has also been recently exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois and California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California. Works by Ghebreyesus can also be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana; Rollins Museum of Art, Winter Park, Florida and the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Writer and poet Elizabeth Alexander’s memoir, The Light of the World (2015), chronicles her husband Ghebreyesus’s life and work.

    Ficre Ghebreyesus was born in Asmara, Eritrea, in 1962, and died in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2012.

    Download CV
    Artist website
  • WORKS
    • Seated Musician IV, 2011

      Seated Musician IV, 2011

    • Untitled, 2011

      Untitled, 2011

    • Portrait of a Young Man, c. 2007-11

      Portrait of a Young Man, c. 2007-11

    • Untitled, c. 2002-07

      Untitled, c. 2002-07

    • Untitled, c. 2002-07

      Untitled, c. 2002-07

    • Untitled, c. 2002-07

      Untitled, c. 2002-07

    • Ficre Ghebreyesus, Map / Quilt VI, 1999
      Ficre Ghebreyesus, Map / Quilt VI, 1999
    • Untitled, c. 1990s

      Untitled, c. 1990s

    • Road, c. 1990s

      Road, c. 1990s

  • Select Exhibitions

    • Ficre Ghebreyesus: I Believe We Are Lost
      Exhibitions

      Ficre Ghebreyesus: I Believe We Are Lost

      30 March - 6 May 2023 Galerie Lelong Exhibitions
    • Ficre Ghebreyesus: Horizons
      Exhibitions

      Ficre Ghebreyesus: Horizons

      1 - 12 November 2022 Galerie Lelong Exhibitions
    • Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue
      Exhibitions

      Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue

      10 September - 24 October 2020 Galerie Lelong Exhibitions
    • Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue
      Exhibitions

      Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue

      17 April - 16 May 2020 Galerie Lelong Exhibitions
  • NEWS & EVENTS

    • Ficre Ghebreyesus, Dwelling: New Acquisitions, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, California
      News

      Ficre Ghebreyesus

      Dwelling: New Acquisitions, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, California October 4, 2024–ongoing
    • Galerie Lelong: Dialogues, Ficre Ghebreyesus: I Believe We Are Lost with Key Jo Lee and Enuma Okoro
      Events

      Galerie Lelong: Dialogues

      Ficre Ghebreyesus: I Believe We Are Lost with Key Jo Lee and Enuma Okoro 2 May 2023
    • Work on view: Ficre Ghebreyesus, Solitary Boat in Red and Blue, c. 2002-07, Yale University Art Gallery
      News

      Work on view: Ficre Ghebreyesus, Solitary Boat in Red and Blue, c. 2002-07

      Yale University Art Gallery March 25, 2023

      Yale University Art Gallery
      New Haven, Connecticut
      Ongoing

       

    • Galerie Lelong: Dialogues | Ficre Ghebreyesus's Horizons, Anne Higonnet and Tausif Noor
      News

      Galerie Lelong: Dialogues | Ficre Ghebreyesus's Horizons

      Anne Higonnet and Tausif Noor November 8, 2022
      Galerie Lelong & Co. is pleased to hold a virtual conversation as part of 'Galerie Lelong: Dialogues' between Anne Higonnet and Tausif Noor on occasion of our online viewing room...
    • Ficre Ghebreyesus, Conversation and Virtual Toast with Elizabeth Alexander and Jason Moran
      News

      Ficre Ghebreyesus

      Conversation and Virtual Toast with Elizabeth Alexander and Jason Moran September 10, 2020

      Held on September 10, 2020 at Galerie Lelong
      Watch the recording here

  • PRESS

    • The Brooklyn Rail, ArtSeen: Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue
      Press

      The Brooklyn Rail

      ArtSeen: Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue October 22, 2020
    • The New Yorker, Spotlight: Ficre Ghebreyesus
      Press

      The New Yorker

      Spotlight: Ficre Ghebreyesus September 25, 2020
    • The New York Times, The Inventive Chef Who Kept His 700 Paintings Hidden
      Press

      The New York Times

      The Inventive Chef Who Kept His 700 Paintings Hidden April 17, 2020
    • The New Yorker, Lottery Tickets
      Press

      The New Yorker

      Lottery Tickets February 2, 2015
  • PUBLICATIONS

    • Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue, Elizabeth Alexander and Jason Moran
      Publications

      Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue

      Elizabeth Alexander and Jason Moran
      Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, is pleased to share our new catalogue Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue. The exhibition was held at the gallery from September 10 to...
    • City with a River Running Through, Elizabeth Alexander, Julie Mehretu, Lowery Stokes Sims, Emily Kuhlmann
      Publications

      City with a River Running Through

      Elizabeth Alexander, Julie Mehretu, Lowery Stokes Sims, Emily Kuhlmann
    • Polychromasia: Selected Paintings by Ficre Ghebreyesus, Ficre Ghebreyesus, Elizabeth Alexander, Anne Higonnet, Key Jo Lee, Robert Farris Thompson
      Publications

      Polychromasia: Selected Paintings by Ficre Ghebreyesus

      Ficre Ghebreyesus, Elizabeth Alexander, Anne Higonnet, Key Jo Lee, Robert Farris Thompson
  • Contact Form

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info@galerie-lelong.com

Galerie Lelong, Paris

38, avenue Matignon

75008 Paris France

T +33 1 45 63 13 19

F +33 1 42 89 34 33
info@galerie-lelong.com

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