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) Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, USA (2024); (Upcoming) 1-54, solo booth, with Kristin Hjellegjerde, London, UK (2023); Three Steps North, North Norwegian Artits 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); “Are We There Yet?”, GALLERY SNERK, Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art, NO (2017); ‘UNVEIL’, Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art, NO (2016); NOSTALGIA, LeLa contemporary Art Gallery, Addis Ababa, ET (2015).
Group exhibitions include 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); 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); This man is your friend, RAM Gallery, NO (2019); Digital Africa Cameroonian photography and video art, Cameron (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); Young Invited, Gallery, LNM, NO (2018); The Process– Space, festival and exhibition, Russe, Bulgaria (2018); and Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF), Mondo, Represent Mondo, NO (2017).
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 National Museum Norway (Norway); Easton Capital/John Friedman Collection (USA); Bunker Artspace Museum (USA); Collection africanartfirst (Israel), Oslo municipality’s art Collection (Norway), The Holbar Collection (Liechtenstein) and The Norwegian Parliament Collection (Norway).