Tsion M

I am a self-taught visual artist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My practice is rooted in figurative painting and expressionism, and I use the human figure to explore vulnerability, isolation, human connection, and the emotions that exist beneath everyday interactions.

I work primarily with acrylic, using distortion, exaggeration, and restructuring of the human figure to express feelings that are often difficult to communicate directly. My figures exist somewhere between recognition and distortion, allowing posture, gaze, gesture, and facial expression to become their own language.

I am interested in what happens beneath what we can immediately see—what someone might be feeling behind a quiet expression, what a gesture might communicate without words, or what remains unspoken between two people.

I want my work to encourage the viewer to pause, look a little longer, and perhaps recognize something of their own emotional experience in the figures.

My workspace is a small space within Studio 11, the gallery where I held my 2024 solo exhibition, By A Thread. After a while working with them, the gallery offered me an unused space in their office to continue working from.

Having a dedicated place to paint has given me a more consistent environment to develop my practice, experiment with materials, and work on new ideas. Although it is not a permanent private studio, it has become an important space for my artistic process and development.