WOSENE: Beyond Words

About the Artist:

Wosene is an Ethiopian-born American artist with a distinguished forty-year career in the US and abroad. He is the first to use Amharic script forms in contemporary abstract art, moving beyond their literal meanings to create paintings and sculptures in a new, international visual language he calls WordPlay. Jazz inspires his work in the studio, as did early exposure to New York graffiti. After earning his BFA in Ethiopia, he went on to earn an MFA at Howard University, where he was mentored by Jeff Donaldson, a major African American artist.

His works are held by the United Nations, National Museum of Ethiopia, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Keith Haring Museum of Japan, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, Newark Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Fowler Museum, and Fleming Museum, among other international public, private and corporate collections.