Tegene Kunbi

Tegene Kunbi (b. 1980 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian abstract contemporary painter whose practice deals with issues of place, politics, and the nature of abstraction. Tegene Kunbi’s practice also demonstrates his study and analysis of painting history.

Formally educated in the Western European and Russian academic tradition of realism, his work looks to break down notions of landscape. What he considers a rebellious act that falls in parallel to the historical understanding and function of abstraction, he looks to demonstrate a painterly and abstracted understanding of material, colour, and the notion of nostalgia to break the limitations of visual representation.

Tegene Kunbi received his BFA from the University of Addis Ababa in 2004. He continued his education at the Universitȁt der Künste Berlin. In 2022 he was awarded the Léopold Sédar Senghor prize from the President of the Republic as part of his participation in the Dakar Biennale. He has held solo exhibitions at Bode in Berlin (2023); Barbara Thumm in Berlin (2022); Primo Marella Gallery in Milan (2022); Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi (2019), among others. He has also participated in group exhibition in CH HILL in Stockholm (2021); SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin (2021); Margaret Thatcher Projects in New York (2020), and more. Tegene Kunbi currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.