Published to accompany an exhibition presented by the Museum of the
African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, this new volume showcases the
work of Eritrean-born artist Ficre Ghebreyesus. Many of the paintings
featured are abstracts, studies of geometric color that highlight the
artist's delight in the material qualities of oil paint on canvas. This
collection brings together more than a dozen of Ghebreyesus' finest
works, focusing on abstractly rendered and vivid painted landscapes,
replete with water imagery and aquatic life. In all of these evocative,
and often surreal, landscapes, the viewer senses myriad influences, from
the craft markets of Eritrea to the musical polyrhythms of the black
diaspora, the cultural layering speaking directly to the forces that
shaped the artist's life.
Ghebreyesus left Eritrea as a political refugee, eventually settling in
the United States, where he earned his undergraduate degree and worked
as a humanitarian activist on behalf of Eritrean independence and
ongoing relief issues. Along with that work on behalf of his country and
its people, he studied painting at the Art Students' League and
printmaking at the Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, both in New York
City. He died unexpectedly in April 2012.
