Merikokeb Berhanu

Merikokeb Berhanu is an Ethiopian-born contemporary painter that lives and works in the United States of America. Her paintings deftly balance abstraction and recognisable forms, featuring dense backgrounds intertwined with recurring organic elements such as cellular structures, budding plants, and stylised anthropomorphic forms. These compositions explore the complexities of contemporary life, drawing inspiration from both urban and rural landscapes and delving into themes of rapid urbanisation and the tension between nature and technology. Her recent works incorporate symbols like circuit board patterns and skeletal forms, reflecting on society’s estrangement from the natural world.

Berhanu began her art studies, under the tutelage of a generation of Ethiopian modernist painters, such as Tadesse Mesfin (born 1953, Ethiopian painter who spent seven years at the Soviet Union Leningrad Academy of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, where he received an MFA in painting before returning to Ethiopia in 1984. Alongside his own figurative painting practice, Mesfin has also served for several decades as a professor at the influential Addis Ababa University Alle School of Fine Art and Design) back in Ethiopia, where she studied, with a focus on mural design, at Addis Ababa University, Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2002.

Following her graduation, Berhanu and her contemporaries founded an artist-run studio and exhibition space called the Nubia Studio (2004) with the goal of increasing their visibility and long-term career opportunities in a region where the arts have historically been under-supported. The next fifteen years were spent quietly developing her work and crafting her idiosyncratic visual language that so deftly toes the line between pure abstraction and recognisable form.

Berhanu’s relocation to Maryland, U.S.A., in 2017 marked a time of sudden and intense change in all aspects of her life, a shift that is nowhere more evident than in her paintings. While Berhanu’s work has always had a focus on lifeforms and biomorphic imagery, at this point she started to gravitate towards the more vibrant hues that define her later paintings. New symbols – a circuit board structure, the skeletal remains of fish – began to emerge throughout Berhanu’s work as she grappled with the implications of a society estranged from nature.

Addis Fine Art (with spaces in Addis Ababa and London) took on Berhanu in 2017 (just one year after launching the gallery), and from 2025 she is also represented internationally by Esther Schipper (who has galleries in Berlin, Paris and Seoul) and the New York-based dealer James Cohan.

Berhanu’s work is represented in prestigious public and private collections like: Tate Modern, London; SFMOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (promised gift); Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A.; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.; Rachofsky Collection, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A; Komal Shah & Gaurav Garg Collection, California, U.S.A.; Inhotim Museum, Brumadinho, Brazil; Fondation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar and AMOCA, Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art, Cardiff, Wales.

Berhanu’s solo, and two-person, exhibitions include: Merikokeb Berhanu, Ethiopian National Museum, Addis Ababa (2011); Latest Artworks, Red Hill Art Gallery of Contemporary African Art, Nairobi (2015); Corporeal Contemplation, Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa (2016); Beneath the Surface: The Mysteries of Living and Dying, Addis Fine Art Project Space, London (2019); The Armory Show, Addis Fine Art, New York, NY, U.S.A. (2020); Frieze London, Addis Fine Art, London (2021); LISTE Art Fair, Addis Fine Art, Basel, Switzerland (2023); A World Grows Within, Addis Fine Art Project Space, London (2023); Tête-Bêche, together with Abbas Akhavan, Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY, U.S.A. (2024); EXPO Chicago, Addis Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. (2024); Merikokeb Berhanu, Esther Schipper, Berlin (2025); and Merikokeb Berhanu, James Cohan, New York, NY (2025).

To this could be added the following group exhibitions: Art of Ethiopia, Sheraton Hotel Addis, Addis Ababa (2010); My Self Portrait, Asni Gallery, Addis Ababa (2011); Art of Ethiopia, Sheraton Hotel Addis, Addis Ababa (2011); Art of Ethiopia, Sheraton Hotel Addis, Addis Ababa (2012); Ashara, Laphto Gallery, Addis Ababa (2013); Art of Ethiopia, Sheraton Hotel Addis, Addis Ababa (2013); 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Addis Fine Art, Somerset House, London (2016); CTAF Cape Town Art Fair, Addis Fine Art, Cape Town, Republic of South Africa (2017); Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Addis Fine Art, Cape Town, Republic of South Africa (2018); FNB Joburg Art Fair, Addis Fine Art, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa (2018); 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Addis Fine Art, Somerset House, London (2019); From Modern to Contemporary: Artists from the Horn of Africa and Diaspora, CFHILL, Stockholm (2021); Where Cloudy Waters Collide, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2022); The Milk of Dreams, 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2022); Making Their Mark: Art by Women in the Shah Garg Collection, curated by Cecilia Alemani, Shah Gang Foundation, New York, NY, U.S.A. (2023); Ethiopia at the Crossroads, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. (2023); Ethiopia at the Crossroads, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (2023); Ethiopia at the Crossroads,Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A. (2023); Connected Threads, Addis Fine Art at NADA Exhibition Space, New York, NY, U.S.A. (2024); Twilight is a Place of Promise, Esther Schipper, Berlin (2024); Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection, BAMPFA, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California, U.S.A, (2024-2025) and Art Basel, Esther Schipper, Basel, Switzerland (2025).

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