After migrating from Addis Ababa to Germany and graduating from Stuttgart’s Staatlichen Akademie, the Ethiopian painter has fully realized his own distinct visual language marked by Bacon-esque writhing bodies and the psychological tension hidden in domestic settings. Each of his subjects are underscored by intertwined representations of race and identity politics. “If one recognizes himself or herself in my figures as I recognize myself in them,” Urgessa says, “they will definitely recognize themselves in me.”

Pictured: VUPs 13 (thepreacher), 2021, by Tesfaye Urgessa