Tizta Berhanu

Overview
Tizta Berhanu
Tizta Berhanu (b. 1991) was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she lives and works. She graduated in 2013 from the Addis Ababa University Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, where she studied under the influential modernist painter Tadesse Mesfin. Trained as a figurative painter, Tizta has developed a practice grounded in close emotional observation, using painting as a means to reflect on human connection, vulnerability, and care.
 

Her work centres on the expressive potential of the human figure. Faces, hands, and gestures emerge from softly layered fields of colour, carrying emotional weight without resolving into fixed narratives. Figures often appear intertwined in embraces or moments of proximity, while others remain isolated within the same pictorial space. These juxtapositions allow Tizta to explore the complexity of emotional experience, holding intimacy and solitude, tenderness and distance, in delicate balance.

 

Tizta's paintings are characterised by fluid, swirling brushstrokes and translucent layers of oil paint that create a dreamlike atmosphere. Cool and subdued tones mingle with more saturated hues, allowing colour to function as an emotional register rather than a descriptive tool. Lips, eyelids, and outstretched hands are often the most clearly articulated elements, anchoring the viewer within scenes that otherwise remain intentionally unresolved. Her figures are not portraits of specific individuals but composites drawn from models, photographs, and images encountered online, reassembled into imagined compositions that feel familiar yet elusive.

 

The entangled nature of her imagery gestures toward the importance of community and mutual care, values deeply rooted in Ethiopian social life. By foregrounding gestures of touch, support, and proximity, Tizta invites viewers to reflect on their own emotional relationships and capacities for empathy.

 

In 2024, Addis Fine Art presented Tizta's solo exhibition Agape in Addis Ababa. Named after the Ancient Greek term for unconditional, enduring love, the exhibition marked a deepening of her engagement with compassion and emotional resilience. Her work has also been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions across Nigeria, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States, including three solo presentations with Addis Fine Art in Addis Ababa, New York, and London.