I create a visible, interactive surface – like visual icons that are accessible to everyone. My paintings invite viewers to dialogue with them, to take them into their memory.

WOSENE WORKE KOSROF has created an internationally recognized artistic signature in his work by being the first contemporary Ethiopian-born artist to use the script forms – fiedel – of his native Amharic as a core element in his paintings. He paints from a place between accident and intention, curiosity and discovery, mastery and uncertainty – and so the viewer too can approach his work to discover meanings that emerge through their interaction.

While attending Howard University, he was surprised that his art history professor was lecturing about his paintings as examples of the new contemporary art coming out of Africa. As a student in 1972 at the School of Fine Arts, Addis Ababa, he had begun showing his paintings in Ethiopia, as well as in the USA, and was pleased that he was already becoming recognized as an artist so early on in his career.

His work can be found in museum collections, including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC; National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT and many more. His work can also be found in many international private collections. His work has been reviewed by The New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Winston-Salem Journal and the Philadelphia Tribune.