Afewerk exhibited in New York during the 1970s and engaged with the international art world through the United Nations system. His Africa Hall windows — in Addis Ababa — established his reputation globally.
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.