Roots of Resilience: Tesfaye Urgessa

20 Sep 2025-15 Feb 2026

Overview

Shaped by themes of geographical displacement and migration, internationally acclaimed Ethiopian artist Tesfaye Urgessa creates powerfully visceral paintings that interrogate the politics of war, race and identity.

Following a residency with the Sainsbury Centre, Urgessa will unveil a series of new paintings reflecting on the refugee crisis, which have been created in dialogue with the museum’s collection. Works will investigate layered narratives of war, migration, and survival, reflecting on resilience.

Roots of Resilience refigures the human body not as broken, but as bearing dignity, defiance, and the enduring capacity to heal. The human figure reflects not only personal and collective trauma, but also our potential for empathy, endurance, and transformation.

Works from the Sainsbury Centre’s global collection, such as Pablo Picasso’s Woman combing her Hair (1906), and Henry Moore’s Mother and Child (1932), among others, serve as key sources of inspiration and resonate with Urgessa’s own practice.

Curated by John Kenneth Paranada, Curator of Art and Climate Change at the Sainsbury Centre.