Wosene Worke Kosrof

For well over forty years, Ethiopian-born artist Wosene Worke Kosrof has explored the aesthetic potential of language while using the written symbols of his native Amharic as the major compositional elements in his work. In his paintings, the calligraphic forms of Amharic are broken apart , abstracted and reconfigured, creating a new visual language that draws upon the artist’s Ethiopian heritage, while incorporating his experiences living in the United States and traveling extensively internationally.
“Applying the symbols in my paintings, I relieve words of conventional meanings and instead explore their aesthetic, sensual and visual content. Disassembled and recombined, elongated, distorted or inverted, the language characters reveal not only innovative compositional elements, but also give new perspectives on our connection to language; on how we communicate and make meaning.”
Wosene’s works are deeply collected by contemporary collectors, as well as reside in the permanent collections of numerous museums around the world. His paintings are represented in fine galleries internationally and exclusively shown at Design by Brown – The Gallery. Close