Wendimagegn Belete (b. 1986, Ethiopia) currently lives and works between Ethiopia and Norway. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at the AAU Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, ET in 2012. He then continued his studies with a MA in Contemporary Art at the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art and Creative Writing in Norway graduating in 2017. Belete’s work is greatly informed by Ethiopian narratives, identity, and history, and contains an encyclopaedic range of information taken from archival photos, texts, stories, video frames, and his own experiences and visual documentation. With an interest in epigenetic inheritance; the idea of a memory that transfers through generations, he encourages us to consider both our cultural and personal identities as an accumulation of past experiences, events, and decisions that continue to pervade and define the present.
Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway (2025); (Upcoming) Kongsberg kunstforening, Kongsberg, Norway (2024); Of Water And The Spirit, Kristin Hjellgjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, USA (2024); A1-L22”, Kongsberg Art Association, Norway (2024); Rite of passage, Gallery NOME, Berlin (2024); 1-54, solo booth, with Kristin Hjellegjerde, London, UK (2023); Three Steps North, North Norwegian Artist Centre, Svolær (2023); National Museum, Addis Ababa (2022); Your Gaze Makes me: Wendimagegn Belete, Trøndlag Centre for Contemporary Art, Trondheim, Norway (2022); Codeswitch, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2022); Your Gaze Makes Me, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2021); iodeposito, Traveso, Italy (2021); Tenthaus Oslo, NO (2021); Small projects, Tromso, NO (2021); National Museum, Addis Ababa, ET (2020); LNM Gallery/NO (2020); Oppland Kunstsenter, (2020); Moment 2.0, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Nevlunghavn, Norway (2020); Revenant, Fotografiens Hus, NO (2019); ‘Moment’, ‘Andafta’, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2019); Frozen Memories, Østfold Kunstsenter, Fredrikstad/ NO (2018) among more.
Group exhibitions include Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century, 15th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea (2024); Survival Kit 14, Riga, Latvia (2023); “Who owns what”, Tenthouse Oslo (2023); HacerNoche, Biannual International, Oaxaca, Mexico (2022); 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Morocco (2022); Bangkok Biennial, Bangkok, Thailand (2022); I Call it Art, National Museum of Norway in Oslo (2022); Art Karlsruhe, Rheinstetten, Germany (2022); Artsy Vanguard, Miami, USA (2021); the 6th edition of the Future Generation Art Prize, PinkchukArt-Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine (2021); Facing the Sun, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2021); Sandefjord Kunstforenings Kunstpris, Norway (2021); The 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Morocco (2021); Mediterranea 19 Young Artists Biennale San Marino, Italy (2021); Flag Tromsø, Tromso kunstforening, Norway (2020); Oslo Kunstforening and Sparebankstiftelsen DNB exhibition, Norway (2019); YPN Digital Africa (Casablanca) 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, MAR (2019); B#Side War festival, group exhibition in Venice/Treviso -IT (2019); Altering the past, FUSHION, at Youngs Oslo, NO (2019); Exhibition in Rådhusatelierene, No (2019); Et maleri er et dik tuten ord, Akershus kunstsenter, NO (2019); LNM’s 50th anniversary, kunstnerneshus, NO (2018); Høstutstillingen/the autumn exhibition, kunstnerneshus, NO (2018); among more.
Highlights and Collections
Belete has been shortlisted for the 6th edition of the Future Generation Art Prize. His work can be found in prominent private and public collections such as de Young Museum, California, USA National Museum Norway, Norway; Easton Capital/John Friedman Collection, USA; Bunker Artspace Museum, USA; Collection africanartfirst, Israel; Oslo municipality’s art Collection, Norway; Holbar Collection, Liechtenstein, and The Norwegian Parliament Collection, Norway.