ABOUT
Meron Engida Hawke (b. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, lives and works in Washington DC) creates vibrant tableaus that act as a vehicle for exploring the artist’s personal experiences and Ethiopian cultural identity.
Through trust in the mark-making process, Engida Hawke has developed a rich visual vocabulary that draws influence from the colors and narratives of ancient Ethiopian art.
At the intersections of abstraction and figuration, Engida Hawke’s works center a cast of expressive figures who together tell stories of vulnerability, empowerment, and resilience.
Fusing memory and imagination, Engida layers tones, symbols and motifs to construct emotive scenes intended to prompt dialogue about migration, the environment and women’s experiences.
The artist’s richly layered paintings blend symbolic language with historical, cultural and contemporary references. A new collage technique — combining coffee-stained canvas, figures painted in acrylic paint, and cut pieces of handmade cotton paper — creates a visually and conceptually layered, textured, multidimensional surface. This process of fragmentation and reassembly becomes a metaphor for healing, restoration, and cultural integration.