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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Kaleab Abate, A Beautiful Mess, 2024
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Kaleab Abate, A Beautiful Mess, 2024
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Kaleab Abate, A Beautiful Mess, 2024
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Kaleab Abate, A Beautiful Mess, 2024
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Kaleab Abate, A Beautiful Mess, 2024

Kaleab Abate Ethiopia, b. 1998

A Beautiful Mess, 2024
Mixed Media on Fabric
138 x 78 cm
54 3/8 x 30 3/4 in
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Kaleab's current practice explores change, memory, and the shifting aesthetics of urban life in his city Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s rapidly transforming capital. Like many African metropolises, the city has been...
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Kaleab's current practice explores change, memory, and the shifting aesthetics of urban life in his city Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s rapidly transforming capital. Like many African metropolises, the city has been undergoing rupture-like development, where familiar colors, textures, and atmospheres vanish almost as quickly as they appear. Kaleab coined the term ‘Gintil Get’ meaning ‘undefined beauty’ to describe his search for fleeting inspiration within these moments of transformation.


Through his work, he reflects on how city planning, architectural choices, and accelerated growth reshape not only the built environment but also collective memory, cultural identity, and the everyday coexistence of people. Nostalgia becomes a tool almost an escape to cope with the gradual, irreversible loss of a way of life: its distinct aesthetics, images, street chatter and scents, and the warmth of human connection.

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Founded in 2002 and located in Kampala, Afriart Gallery (AAG) has since become a leading contemporary art gallery representing artists from Africa. 

AFRIART GALLERY

110-112, 7th Street, Kampala, Uganda

Tel: +256701630640

Email: daudi@afriartgallery.org

GALLERY OPENING HOURS

Monday to Saturday: 10 AM - 6 PM
Public Holidays: 10 AM - 4 PM

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