The Invisible Within the Visible
The paintings presented to you here are realistic works of nudes and portraitures. Many of them are executed by the techniques of the chiaroscuro and are of blended colors. I surmise that any spectator shall inevitably be mesmerized or transfixed the moment he encountered these paintings and be absorbed in utter silence in order to dialogue with his own conscience.
The target of the paintings doesn’t seem to be mere depiction of external appearances, but more of internal identities and psychological make ups. Thus, if spectators find themselves captivated and then dialoguing with themselves they should not feel embarrassed but wonder. Otherwise, the can reach the level of appreciation and satisfaction gradually till they feel it in the inner soul and conscience, if they patiently engaged in seeing scrutinizing the works devoid of any verbal support.
The young artist in charge of this works is Kirubel Abebe. An artist obsessed by two aspects of the human appearances as can be observed in his paintings. He is an artist of the visible and the invisible, the souls and the body as well as the objective and the subjective. It is a well-established fact that any artist is a participant I these two aspects of human life the physical and psychical. The number of artists that come to be capable of presenting these two parallel aspects of human life particularly in our country is very few. However, the young artist Kirubel is venturing towards that realm, as his works herein indicate.
What any spectator who encounters these works for the first time shall observe inevitably at the first stage is that they are works depicting the human figure as portraits and nudes. Then on the second stage, he shall star to understand that, there are other implications entailed to provoke questions related to human soul and psyche together with other critical insights. It is by then that the interaction between the spectator and the works starts to pass into the innermost feeling of the self silently and stealthily. It is true that no other creature but only man himself knows the ins and outs of the human beings. Particularly, when one starts to search and scrutinize the self not verbally but visually plenty of novel inquires shall start to emerge. Leave alone the case of being an artist who is engaged in searching for the self through brush strokes and colors any person who is looking at his appearance through the mirror shall inevitably observe new aspects of himself. He shall travel to good and bad memories and float in nostalgias or else swim into future hopes. This type of process in the inner psyche is what artist Kirubel searched keenly and tried to show us.
It is clear that, the young artist Kirubel Abebe is at the peak of his talent and mastery as capable draughtsman and painter. That is why we ae saying that his works ate endowed with power of reflecting the physical and the psychical as well as the objective and the subjective. The atmosphere and aura of his grey colored works executed as such by the technique of the chiaroscuro as well as brood brush strokes to depict differing human figure appearances, some on group, some isolated, some from the backside others form the front side or in close up; have entailed unrestricted messages towards each of us. They reflect individual states and aloneness as well as immersions and reflections of the self.
As for my own part, I already come to understand the young artist kirubel abebe has in him a wealth of creativity yet to be exploited both in terms of theory and practice. By now he is just starting his venture and thus, wished heartily that he may proceed on his searching and be effective to the utmost.