Ephrem Solomon : Silence

6 Jan-3 Feb 2018

Overview

In the woodcut characters that populate Ethiopian artist Ephrem Solomon’s oeuvre, amongst the geometric shapes that fill the backgrounds, and the etched lines that stretch around mouths and foreheads, it is their gaze that draws us. At times confrontational, at others, looking off into an unseen distance, eyes are doleful, hopeful, despairing and questioning. They brim with emotion, and time, memories and experience are literally carved into faces, evident in under-eye bags, laugh lines around mouths, or worried furrows on foreheads. Solomon’s works present a view of the urban environment, and, within that realm, of the people that inhabit the spaces around him. In his second solo show at Kristin Hjellegjerde, Silence (6th of January – 3rd of February 2018), he presents all new works, musings that have taken on a darker turn, as he parses through thoughts on life, death and physical and mental boundaries.