The ancient royal capital of Shewa, set high on a ridge in the Ethiopian highlands. Afewerk Tekle was born here on October 22, 1932. The landscape — the light, the silence, the immensity — entered his visual language before any formal training could.
Every place Afewerk Tekle inhabited left a mark on the work he produced there. The light was different, the faces were different, the architecture carried different memories. He was an artist who believed that where you were determined — at least in part — what you could see.