compiled by Patricia L. DiRubbo, Ph.D.
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1950
Born Wosene Kosrof in Arat Kilo, district of Addis Ababa that is home to many traditional musicians, poets, artisans, and tailors and seamstresses of traditional costumes.
1966
Encouraged by brother, Mulatu Kosroff, visits School of Fine Arts (SFA) in Addis Ababa where he first meets their half-brother, artist and SFA faculty Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian.
1967-72
Studies at SFA. Student years coincide with second half of "Addis Spring" (1962-1972), decade of late flowering in arts and culture preceding the decline of imperial Ethiopia.
Begins study of "lettering" with local artist and SFA faculty Yegezu Bisrat; introduced to the aesthetics of script and begins integrating Ethiopian cultural traditions of icons and writing into work.
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1972
Graduates with distinction from SFA; receives awards from Emperor Haile Selassie.
Paintings included in New York exhibition Africa Creates '72.
1973
First solo exhibition at Belvedere Gallery in Addis Ababa, where for the first time he hears jazz by Duke Ellington. Jazz begins to figure prominently in his painting.
1974
National Museum of Ethiopia purchases painting.
1975-76
Invited to teach at SFA as first alumnus faculty member.
Exhibits widely in Addis Ababa.
1977
Leaves Ethiopia for Nairobi, Kenya and exhibits at Paa Ya Paa Gallery. Receives invitation to exhibit paintings in group show at Elan Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland.
1978
Arrives in New York, NY. Travels to Washington DC for exhibition at Elan Gallery and settles there among largest expatriate Ethiopian community in the US.
Begins MFA studies in studio painting as Ford Foundation Talent Scholar at Howard University, Washington DC.
1979
Advisor/mentor, Jeff Donaldson (Dean of College of Fine Arts) influences direction of work by urging further experimentation with Amharic calligraphy in painting.
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1980
Completes MFA at Howard University.
Begins series Graffiti Magic.
1984-85
First art colony residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Sweetbriar, VA.
Moves to Plainfield, Vermont. Begins teaching graduate and undergraduate students at Goddard College.
1986
Commissioned by the United Nations to create painting that becomes stamp for UN campaign Africa in Crisis.
Begins series of sculptures with wood, nails, cans, and found objects entitled Lucy (Dinqnesh); title of series refers to the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton found in Ethiopia's Afar Valley in 1974.
Solo exhibit at AVA Gallery, Hanover, NH.
1987
First solo exhibition of works from series Graffiti Magic at Howard University Art Gallery, Washington, DC.
1988
Creates second of two United Nations commissions; both paintings now in UN permanent collection.
Begins second major series of paintings Africa: The New Alphabet.
1989-90
Solo exhibits of works from Africa: The New Alphabet at Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock, VT.
Teaches summer course in acrylic painting to high school students at Vermont Governor's Institute on the Arts, which he continues to do annually through 2000.
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1991
Moves to California, first to Mendocino, then Sacramento.
Teaches undergraduate art courses at Union Institute, Sacramento.
1992
Selected to participate in major juried exhibition at Crocker Museum, Sacramento.
Völkerkunde Museum, Zürich, Switzerland purchases Abyssinian Palm Reader.
1993
Begins creating paintings with mixed media: wood, goatskin/parchment, sheet metal, nails, soda cans, credit cards.
Exhibits with Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
1994
Meets Lori Austin, director of Spirits in Stone Galleries in Sonoma, CA and begins exhibiting works in company's three northern California galleries.
Exhibits at Norman Parish Gallery, Washington, DC.
1995
Moves to Berkeley; finds work space at Energy Arts Studio, Oakland, CA.
Begins series The Color of Words; experiments using single enlarged language character in painting.
First exhibition in Japan: Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi.
Works included in Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa at London's Whitechapel Gallery (exhibition traveled to Malmo Konsthall).
Returns to Ethiopia for first visit since leaving in 1977. Exhibits and lectures at Alliance Française.
1996
Invited as first contemporary African artist to month-long residency at Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy.
Inspired by Michelangelo 'liberating prisoners' from stone; discusses ways to 'visually liberate' Amharic language symbols from confines of linguistic meaning.
Second trip to Ethiopia; major solo exhibition at Saba Alene's St. George Gallery.
1999
Indianapolis Museum of Art purchases Inside the Museum of African Art.
Two-person show at Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
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2000
Solo exhibition at Parish Gallery, Washington, DC.
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, purchases The Preacher III for its permanent collection.
2001
Solo exhibit of work at Folkens Museum Etnografiska in Stockholm, Sweden.
2002
Travels to Caribbean; solo exhibit at Museum of Antigua and Barbuda, St. John's, Antigua.
Solo exhibition at Skoto Gallery, New York, NY.
2003
Paintings included in Ethiopian Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora, at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
My Ethiopia: Recent Paintings by Wosene Worke Kosrof, an exhibition jointly organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY, and The Newark Museum, opens in Purchase, NY. Exhibition travels to The Newark Museum in New Jersey and additional US venues.
Solo exhibition at Galeria Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico; two-person exhibition at Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
2004
To be completed
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