Leikun Nahusenay

Leikun Nahusenay was born in 1982 in Addis Ababa. While primarily identifying himself as a self-taught artist, he nonetheless completed his art degrees from the Ale School of Fine Arts (2006) and Teferi Mekonnen School (2011). His multidiscipline practice is based in Addis Ababa, where he works from the Nas Gedame studio.

For Nahusenay, the creation of a work of art comes from the mind and the heart. His works are born from pious meditations and are meditations themselves. His recent pastel drawings are concerned with the presence and absence of the spirit in humain body and its connections with the spiritual. He is graduated with woodcut graphics. He considers himself as a line artist as he creates line by line. Music is also a big part of his art. His series of pastel drawings titled Body vs Soul are concerned with models of bodies without faces. During his residency with Versant Sud in Marseille (France) in 2018 he created a tapestry inspired by his pastel drawings.

He is also a member of the Netsa Art Village and contributes to the growing Ethiopian art scene. His work has been shown at numerous exhibitions, including Addis Calling 2 Group Show, at Addis Fine Art (2016), Flying Spoons sculptural exhibition at Asni Gallery in Addis Ababa (2015), Draw Me A Castle at Alliance Ethio-Française, Addis Ababa and Paris (2011), Future Makers international group photo exhibition at the National Museum of Ethiopia and Goethe Institute (2012) and The Fine Line Between, Lela Gallery (2008). Recent solo exhibitions include Child Art 1, Lela Gallery, Addis Ababa (2011), Cartoon Relief Sculpture at Grazmach Tasse Cultural Centre and Trinity at Alliance Ethio-Française, Addis Ababa (2009). He took part in the fourth annual Photographer's Portfolio meeting at the Bamako Encounters Biennale.