Painter Hana Yilma Godine Uses Ethiopian Textiles to Construct Fantastical Compositions of Women in Repose

Fabrics that will be incorporated into the work. Courtesy of Hana Yilma Godine.

Hana Yilma Godine paints women in private moments: in repose on the couch, at the hair salon, preparing for a wedding. The artist, who received her MFA from Boston University in 2020, studied with celebrated Ethiopian artist Tadesse Mesfin in her hometown of Addis Ababa. The flattened perspective and elongated figures in her compositions recall classical Ethiopian iconography, while her materials—she paints on fabrics that women buy at local markets and turn into dresses—come from everyday life.

Goodine’s second U.S. solo exhibition, “A Hair Salon in Addis Ababa,” on view through March 5, spreads across two venues in New York: Fridman Gallery and Rachel Uffner Gallery. While her home country is facing civil war, Goodine imagines a parallel dimension where women are safe and free to express themselves

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