This year’s Big Art Sale was held last Saturday and Sunday at Hilton Hotel. A large number of artists showcased and sold their art works. Among the artists was found Painter Beimnet Addisu who brought five art works to the exhibition many of which illustrate nature. He is glad to be part of the event. He said the exhibition enabled him meet with art lovers and other artists. “My customers also extended their reflections on my works which I believed is an important input to the betterment of my next works,” Beimnet said.
Various artists and audiences partook in the exhibition invited by organizers and the art community. Therefore, there was a wider opportunity to sale the art works. “Since my works mainly illustrate nature, my works have won better understanding and positive feedback from my audiences.”
This is an important opportunity for both the artist and the buyers to back scratch each other. The artist will get buyers and the buyers in turn will get a variety of art works with fair prices. Beimnet has made his top ten works so far and he has an ambition to add more works and display them to the audience by organizing his own exhibition in the near future.
At the event, painter Asratemariam Dereje was also displaying his pieces next to Beimnet. Asratemariam is a third year Painting Department Student at Addis Ababa University. He was participating in the exhibition introducing his realistic art works to his audiences and buyers. “I brought a refined and culturally motivated artistic works. It is my first time to partake in the Big Art Sale event. I have learned much from my senior artists whom I met in this exhibition,” he said. He believed that the event is a crucial exposure to painters to accumulate knowledge that they may not get at school. “This is my biggest benefit from the program besides displaying my works to the audience,” he emphasized.
He met with senior painters who have 20 to 30 years of experiences in the profession which is vital to him to learn from their skills—how to exhibit paintings, how to communicate with people and so on. Though it is the first appearance to Asratemariam to participate in the Addis Big Art Sale, he did involve in various group exhibitions including the Entoto Exhibition that was recently displayed to the diaspora community that came to Addis as part of the Great Home Coming Challenge. He said about 200 veteran painters partook in the event. Therefore he believed that such exhibitions are important to develop the experience of the painter.
Asratemariam is a realist painter. His mentor painter Mezgebu Tessema (Assistant Professor) is his role model whom Asratemariam admired from realistic artists. He believed that he has similar passion and art style as his mentor. “I hope I will learn more and do my best to reach the level of achievement in which people like my mentor have done. That is why I am here,” he noted.
Another realistic Painter Awoke Kelemu had also participated in the exhibition displaying his five works. So far he had produced about 100 artistic works. He started partaking in an exhibition for the first time by staging his own sole exhibition at National Theatre four years ago. Since then, Awoke partook in six group exhibitions.
The Big Art Sale exhibition is a big event which helps the painter to get more audience to his artistic pieces, Awoke stated. Every painter will have a good opportunity to sale his works since there are huge number of viewers. However, beyond all these things, experience sharing between senior and emerging artists by itself has a huge contribution to the development of the industry.
“I have learned a lot from other painters even by just watching their works that enable me draw lesson about new techniques in canvas usage, brushing style and color consumption among others. This helps me to improve my painting techniques,” Awoke said.
More than 300 artists were registered online to partake in the Big Art Sale event. Artists who are skilled in painting, digital art and sculpture have presented their works to the audience in various shades arranged at Hilton Hotel, said event organizer Edom Belete, from Prologue Marketing PLC.
The income from the exhibition will be donated for a charity organization. The Addis Big Art Sale that was started 17 years ago with 27 painters now boasts over 350 artists. This year, about 2400 art pieces are displayed on the average. This is an important platform to the artists to meet and share experience, she said. They also meet with buyers and art lovers. The event is also a golden opportunity to audiences to access variety of pieces and artists at once by saving, time, money and energy. This year’s exhibition is unique as the number of painters has doubled compared to that of last year.
The improving opportunity of involving in big art exhibition and wide graduation of universities and art schools in the sector has increased the number of artists partaking in various exhibitions including Addis Big Art Sale, according to Edom.
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
