The Ethiopian artist debuts his latest body
of work, Moving Shadows II, at Nataal
and Red Hook Labs’ exhibition,
New African Photography II
As Nataal and Red Hook Labs’ co-curated show, New African Photography II, opens this week, we are happy to unveil this new body of work by one of our nine participating artists, Girma Berta. Moving Shadows II reflects his on-going preoccupation with documenting the energy he finds in his home city of Addis Ababa. The self-taught photographer takes stealth shots of people on the street and then juxtaposes them against colourful backgrounds. This contrast helps to capture “the beautiful, the ugly and all that is in between.” Whether a mother and daughter on the school run, a tradesman carrying baskets on his head or two journeymen transporting jerry cans on a horse-drawn cart, his works turns the everyday into the wondrous.
The first Moving Shadows series received the 2016 Getty Images Instagram Award and was exhibited at Cape Town Art Fair (2017), PhotoVille NY (2016, 2015), Look Festival NY (2016), 1:54 Contemporary Art Fair London (2016), AKAA Art Fair, Paris (2016) and Bamako Photo Fest (2015). He now travels to New York with his gallery, Addis Fine Art, to participate in the 2017 New York Times Portfolio Review and the Nataal show.
The artist will be joining Kyle Weeks, Wura-Natasha Ogunji and William Ukoh, for an artists’ talk on Saturday 6 May from 2-4pm at Red Hook Labs. To attend, please email info@redhooklabs.com
Read Nataal’s full interview with Girma Berta here.
Nataal: New African Photography II runs from 4-14 May at Red Hook Labs, 133 Imlay St, Brooklyn, New York, open 10am-6pm daily
Visit Girma Berta
Visit Red Hook Labs
Published on 30/04/2017