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Layers of Life is a series of paintings inspired by the personal and collective experience of living in an urban area. The visuals have human figures with a sense of stillness merged with abstract form and texture to portray and examine the relationship between society and space.
Changes in urban areas can often lead to gentrification and displacement and bring new cultural experiences and conflicts. Geographical matters and changes in social norms have raised questions about what urbanization avails to our time. Immersed in this new reality can shape our present and future.
These works have raised a question, and as I am a part of it, to express and record the emotion peering into the layers was a gaze to act of declaration in response to social and political change.
Natnael Ashebir is a multi-disciplinary artist (b.1995, Ethiopia) who has completed a BFA from Alle School of Fine Art and Design in 2021, a Diploma from Entoto Polytechnic College in 2016, and a certificate from Abyssinia Fine Art School in 2013. His work focuses on the relations between history, identity, culture, and urban sprawl. Natnael was a second-prize winner of the Emerging Painting Invitational Prize EPI 2022. He currently lives and works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.