Wosene Worke Kosrof : : Chronology

1950
Born in Arat Kilo district of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a district in the center of the city bound on one side by the National Museum of Ethiopia and Addis Ababa University, and on the other by the then-Imperial Palace of Haile Selassie.

Because of its central location and its important gathering places - the university, the School of Fine Arts, foreign cultural institutes, cafes, night clubs, honey wine bars, open markets, and nearby cinemas, fitness centers, and eat-in butcher shops - Arat Kilo is a dynamic hub for the development of new impulses in politics, theater, music, modern painting, poetry, and fashion.

1954-56
His mother, Worke Woldegebrael, sends him to the Coptic Church pre-school, where he first learns Amharic script by rhythmically singing out the sounds of the forms, and then later by looking at the 221 fidälocc (script forms) on a full page mounted on cardboard. He first practices writing by tracing the script in the dirt floor of the school.

1956-1967
Attends Kokebe Tsibah School, in the Kebena district of Addis Ababa – one of the foremost city schools for both academic achievement and music. Many of Ethiopia’s famous musicians, major contributors to the development of the country’s modern music, graduate from this school.

1967-1972
Encouraged by brother, Mulatu Kosroff, enrolls in School of Fine Arts (SFA), Arat Kilo/Addis Ababa.  Undergraduate years at SFA (now School of Art and Design of Addis Ababa University) coincide with latter half of “Addis Spring” (1962-1972), the decade of late flowering in arts and culture preceding decline of imperial Ethiopia.

Studies studio painting, drawing, and design under Modernist painter Gebre Kristos Desta, and with Abdurahman Sherif, Yigezew Bisrat, Wendy Kindred, Herbert Seiler, Tadesse Gizaw, Tadesse Mamecha, Bisrat Bekele, Signor Fumo, under directorship of Alefelege Selam, and with fellow students and later artists Tadesse Mesfin, Teshome Bekele, Tesfaye Tessema, Alemayhew GebreMedhin, Kebedech Tekleab, Yohannes Gedamu, Tulu Gua, Tibebe Terfa, Martha Kesela, Geta Mekonnen, among others.

 Produces many drawings as well as first figurative paintings on masonite.

 Is introduced to aesthetics of script as art form in traditional Ethiopian paintings. Studies “lettering” and integrates into early works abstracted symbols from Ethiopian cultural icons, magic scrolls, and Amharic inscriptions.

1969
Exhibits drawings at the National Lottery Hall, Addis Ababa; Emperor Haile Selassie and Princess Tenagnewerk attend the event and acquire nine drawings (for which artist was never paid). One of the drawings is now on display at the National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.

1972                          
Graduates with distinction and is awarded BFA from School of Fine Arts.  Receives award for excellence from Emperor Haile Selassie.

First U.S. exhibition of paintings in New York: Africa Creates ’72, an exhibit of contemporary African art.

1973                           
First solo exhibitions in Addis Ababa at Belvedere Gallery and Alliance Française.

Encounters jazz by Duke Ellington during Ellington’s Ethiopia tour. Jazz and traditional Ethiopian music become major influences in his visual compositions.

First trip abroad: attends East African Arts Conference, Nairobi, Kenya; group exhibition at
Paa Ya Paa Gallery, Nairobi.

1974                           
National Museum of Ethiopia purchases oil painting Mother and Child for its permanent collection.
Solo exhibition at Goethe Institute, Addis Ababa, arranged by Annemarie Welteke who becomes a lifelong friend.
Haile Selassie is deposed and replaced by military government, ending centuries of imperial rule in Ethiopia.

1975-76                      
City of Addis Ababa Museum purchases two paintings: The Workers’ Neighborhood and Fresh Water.  Exhibits widely in Addis Ababa.

Travels to Nairobi with fellow artists Zerihun Yetmgeta and Tewodros S/Marcos; group exhibition at Paa Ya Paa Gallery.

 Invited as first alumnus to join faculty at Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts. Teaches advanced painting and drawing. Students include now established artists Behailu Bezabih, Mulugeta Tafesse, and Mezgebu Tesema, among others.

 Military government consolidates power in Ethiopia. “Red Terror,” the period of murderous violence by government forces against opposition groups, intensifies.

1977
Leaves Ethiopia for Nairobi, Kenya; again exhibits at Paa Ya Paa Gallery. Travels to Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, where he meets other contemporary African artists, and is influenced by the diversity of African cultures and pan-African motifs. Travels on to Paris and London.

 Invited to exhibit in group show at Elan Gallery, Bethesda, Maryland.

1978
Arrives in New York City; encounters U.S. icons, such as Broadway signs, Times Square neon, Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, street graffiti, and “yellow cabs” that all later surface as motifs in paintings. 

Settles in large expatriate Ethiopian community in Washington, DC.

1978-1980
MFA studies in studio painting at Howard University, Washington, DC; Ford Foundation Talent Scholar.

 Works with mentor, Jeff Donaldson, who encourages further exploration of Ethiopian calligraphy. Encounters inscription paintings of major contemporary Sudanese artists, Ibrahim El-Salahi and Ahmed Shibrain, and works by other African and African American artists. Spends time with painter and half-brother, Skunder Boghossian.

Becomes first Ethiopian-born artist to integrate Amharic language symbols as a core element in contemporary painting.  Shifts from oil paints to experiments with fast-drying acrylics, which transform painting process.

1980
Completes MFA at Howard University. Frequent travel to New York; documents New York City icons, street, and subway graffiti.  Begins series Graffiti Magic that incorporates urban motifs.

Meets Patricia DiRubbo while both are living in Washington, DC.

1981-1983
Exhibits in numerous group shows, including Franz Bader Gallery (Washington, D.C); Pelington Gallery (Columbus, OH); Commonwealth Institute (London, England); Haitian Museum (Port-au-Prince).

1984                           
First residency at artist colony Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Sweetbriar, VA.  Further intensive work with acrylics and script in two-dimensional work.  Meets and exchanges ideas with established international visual artists, as well as composers, poets, novelists.

1984-1991
Moves to Vermont.  Has studio in Goddard College, Plainfield; adjunct faculty for studio painting at Goddard College and Vermont College, Montpelier; teaches drawing and painting at Community College of Vermont.

Wosene and Patricia marry on mountaintop celebration in Groton Forest, VT.

Solo and group exhibitions in New England galleries in Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine.

Exhibits in group show at Fleming Museum, University of Vermont (UVM), Burlington, VT.

Attends opening of exhibition Primitivism in Twentieth Century Art at New York Museum of Modern Art, a comprehensive presentation of traditional African art juxtaposed with 20th century Western Modernist art. Recognizes strong influence of African traditional arts on modern Western paintings and sculptures.

Visits Robert Motherwell retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Substitute teaches in Randolph and Brookfield, Vermont K-6 schools to replace sculptor friend, Jim Sardonis, who has sabbatical year. 

1986
United Nations commissions painting for campaign Africa in Crisis.  Painting becomes UN stamp and part of UN permanent collection.

Begins series of mixed media sculptures, entitled Lucy (Dinknesh), using wood, nails, soda cans, buttons, aluminum, found objects, and odd household items; sculptures based on the 3.2-million-year-old skeleton found in Ethiopia’s Afar Valley in 1974.

Invited by board member Barbara Pringle, who becomes a major collector and lifelong friend, to have a solo exhibition at AVA Gallery, Hanover, NH.

Lectures at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, on art and inscription in series Graffiti Magic.

At Dartmouth, first encounter with original murals by José Clemente Orozco.

1987                           
Solo exhibition from series Graffiti Magic at Howard University Art Gallery, Washington, DC; exhibition brochure text written by Prof. Dr. Kwaku Ofori-Ansa.  Howard University acquires work for its permanent collection.

First trip to Germany.  Attends exhibitions of traditional and contemporary art, and views African art collections at museums in Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Berlin.

1988
Two paintings commissioned by United Nations become part of UN permanent collection.

Solo exhibition at World Bank, Washington, DC.  World Bank acquires two paintings for its permanent collection.

Begins second major series Africa: The New Alphabet, which moves from bold use of Ethiopian script symbols in “graffiti”-like paintings, to large-scale compositions using abstracted language symbols as visual narratives of historic, political, and cultural shifts in Ethiopia.

Artist’s mother, Worke Woldegebrael, first visits U.S. from Ethiopia. 

1989
Travels to Berlin and participates in New Year’s Eve celebrations at Berlin Wall.  New paintings articulate notion of transient borders; sees potential use of Ethiopian script symbols as universal visual language, beyond conventions/boundaries of linguistic meaning.

Visits Berlin’s Dahlem Museum’s extensive holdings of Ethiopian traditional art and artifacts.  Attends major exhibition of Bakuba textiles at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt; soon after, integrates Kuba-like geometric patterns with Ethiopian script images in paintings.

1989-1990
Solo exhibition from series Africa: The New Alphabet at Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock, VT.

Becomes naturalized US citizen; changes name from Wosene Kosrof Boghossian to Wosene Worke Kosrof, a tribute to his mother, Worke, who, as a single parent, raised him and his brother, Mulatu.

Resident artist: teaches acrylic painting for high school students at annual summer program Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts and continues each summer through 2000.  

1991
Moves from Vermont to California. Stays in Mendocino weekend home of William Bruff, Goddard college colleague, friend, and marriage witness, for three months.  Moves to Sacramento and teaches painting and drawing as adjunct professor at Union Institute, Sacramento, CA.

1992-1993
Völkerkunde Museum, Zürich, Switzerland, purchases Abyssinian Palm Reader for its permanent collection.

Group exhibitions in Northern California: Crocker Museum (Sacramento); John Natsoulas Gallery (Davis); Bomani Gallery (San Francisco).  Meets William and Lynette Zimmer in Mendocino, CA, and exhibits paintings at the William Zimmer Gallery.

Begins series of mixed media paintings using goatskin, sheet metal and nails, soda cans and credit cards.

1994
Meets Lori Austin, director of Spirits in Stone Galleries and has first exhibition at Spirits in Stone Gallery, Sonoma, CA.

Travels to Yucatan, Mexico; explores and documents architecture, sculptures, and symbols at ancient Mayan sites at Tulum, Chichen Itza, and Cobán.  Studies works of modern Mexican masters Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco.

Solo exhibition at Norman Parish Gallery, Washington, DC.

Travels again to Germany; meets (former East German) novelist, Fritz Rudolf Fries, at his home in Petershagen, GDR.  Fries acquires painting for his private collection.

Private exhibition at the homes of major Berlin collectors Brigitte Biesinger and Dirk Jung, and Lutz Oppermann. In Karlsruhe, exhibits privately at home of collectors Ingrid Biesinger and Hans-Peter Graf.

Begins long-year relationship with fine art photographer Jay Daniel of Black Cat Studio, then of San Raphael, and now in Novato, CA.  Black Cat Studio produces – to the present - the artist’s fine art photography and limited-edition prints.

1995
Moves from Sacramento to Berkeley, CA.  Rents studio with artist Ross Drago at Energy Arts, Oakland, CA.

Begins series Color of Words that explores sculptural dimensions of Ethiopian language symbols, and the expressive blend of color and symbol.

First solo exhibition at Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, (Shikoku Island) Japan, after invitation by gallerists Nozomu and Mamoru Hiraoka, and Chizu Takeda. 

Exhibits in New Visions: Recent Works by Six African Artists, curated by Salah Hassan and Okwui Enwezor, at Zora Neale Hurston Museum, Orlando, FL.

Works included in Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, co-curated by Salah Hassan.  “In 1995 everything revolved around Africa in more than 25 cities in the UK. As part of the festival africa95, major institutions such as the Tate Gallery in Liverpool or the Victoria and Albert Museum in London focused on the continent’s art and culture. One of the most influential exhibitions during this extravaganza was Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa in London’s Whitechapel Gallery. (This show) opened a new chapter on the exhibitions about the artistic discourse in Africa…” (online article: Julia Friedel, ‘Exhibition Histories.’ Contemporary&, May 3, 2017)   Exhibition travels 1996 to Malmö Konsthall, Sweden.

Returns to Ethiopia for first visit since departing in 1977.  Stays with his brother whom he hasn’t seen in eighteen years.  Visits historical sites of Gondar and the rock hewn churches of Lalibela.

Has solo exhibition and lectures at Alliance Française, Addis Ababa.  Produces new paintings, as visual journals, of renewed experience with Amharic language, and documents shifting styles in urban commercial signs and graffiti.

Spends time with old friend, distinguished Ethiopian playwright, Abate Mekuria; has many discussions on the changing art landscape in Ethiopia.

Meets Asake Bomani and Danny Glover; solo exhibition at Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

Begins discussions with collector friends Frank Dietrich and Zsuzsa Molnar on structuring an art business. Later incorporates arts business as Color of Words, Inc., Berkeley, CA.

1996
Becomes first contemporary African artist to be awarded Rockefeller Foundation fellowship for month-long residency in Bellagio, Italy.  Stages open studio for Bellagio fellows in his studio, Casa Rossa, directly on Lake Como.

Sees Leonardo’s Last Supper under restoration in Milan and Michelangelo’s Prisoners and David in Florence. Visits historical sites in Venice and meets glass artists in Murano.

Inspired by Michelangelo’s ‘liberating prisoners’ from stone, applies principle to further ‘visually liberate’ Ethiopian language symbols from confines of linguistic meaning.

Second visit to Ethiopia; spends time with artist friend Fikru GebreMariam.

Major solo exhibition with pioneering gallerist Saba Alene at St. George Gallery, Addis Ababa.  Produces major mixed media work Shoeshine Opera, based on the working tools of the many urban shoeshine boys, and after seeing his friend Abate Mekuria’s theater play of the same title at the National Theater. He invites the shoeshine boys he met and whose tools he used in the artwork to visit the gallery exhibition – the first time in their lives to visit a gallery. (Shoeshine Opera is now in the collection of Dilip Sheth, Washington, DC.)

1997
Travels to Germany and exhibits at homes of private collectors in Munich and Berlin.

Strengthens spatial depth/volume of Ethiopian script symbols in paintings; increases focus on paintings of individual language characters to emphasize their sculptural dimensions.

Second solo exhibition at Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan.  Stays as guest in teahouse adjacent to gallery.

Visits Hiroshima and its museum; Kyoto, where he visits a major Zen garden and the nearby large red torii in the water at Miyajima (torii later appear in his paintings); further travel to Tokyo and the temple complex at Asakusa.

Solo exhibition at Wright Gallery in New York City.

1998
For six months, moves studio into Berkeley home to care for terminally ill mother, Worke; she dies June 10th.  Produces paintings that reflect the great loss of his mother, the death of his father-in-law Americo DiRubbo in Pittsburgh, PA in 1995, and the intense sadness at the death of his childhood friend, Solomon WoldeKidan in Berlin in 1997. Motifs from their lives recur in paintings: playgrounds, dinners, community celebrations, interior family spaces, childhood mischief and pranks.

1999
Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN, purchases Inside the Museum of African Art for its permanent collection. 

First two-person exhibition at Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA.  Solo exhibition at Bomani Gallery, San Franciso, CA.

2000
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, acquiresThe PreacherIII for its permanent collection.

Solo exhibition at Parish Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Spends two months at artist colony Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Sweetbriar, VA.

2001
Travels to Lisbon and Malhaõ, Portugal, and to Andalusia, Spain; encounters traditions and uses of symbols in Islamic art and architecture in the Alfama in Lisbon, the Mezquita in Córdoba, and the Alhambra in Granada.  Attends exhibit of Picasso and His Models and sees Guernica at Museum Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and paintings by Velásquez, Miró, and Goya at the Prado Museum, Madrid.  Many motifs from this journey appear over time in his paintings.

Solo exhibitions at Folkens Museum Etnografiska in Stockholm, Sweden; Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA.

Resident at VCCA artist colony, Sweetbriar, VA.  Discusses emerging three-dimensional work with resident Austrian sculptor.

2002
Solo show at Skoto Gallery, New York, NY.  Exhibition reviewed by New York Times art critic, Holland Cotter.  Solo exhibition at Museum of Antigua and Barbuda, St. John’s, Antigua.

Spends three months in Ethiopia, traveling overland on northern routes to Lalibela, Axum, Gondar, and Bahir Dar.  Documents travel for continuing series Color of Words.

2003
Paintings included in first major exhibition of contemporary Ethiopian artists: Ethiopia Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora, at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, curated by Elizabeth Harney.

My Ethiopia: Recent Paintings by Wosene Worke Kosrof, curated by Christa Clarke and jointly organized with Lucinda Gedeon of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, and Mary Sue Price of The Newark Museum, NJ, opens at the Neuberger Museum; exhibition catalogue produced. Neuberger Museum of Art acquires Woman of Words II for its collection.

Solo exhibition at Galería Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Daughter Alexia Wosene is born.

2004
My Ethiopia: Recent Paintings by Wosene Worke Kosrof travels to the Newark Museum, NJ.  Exhibition reviewed by New York Times art critic, Holland Cotter.  The Newark Museum acquires Berkeley III for its permanent collection.

Solo exhibition at Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan.  Is invited to studio of contemporary calligraphic artist, Kayou Kitakomi, where he and Kayou collaborate on a set of experimental calligraphic works, using black ink, calligraphy brushes, and rice paper.

Meets Dr. Masayuki and Keiko Chikamori who have a large psychiatric hospital in Kochi. They acquire several paintings from the exhibition for their hospital and give a tour of the hospital. The doctor comments that the paintings have soothing effects on his patients.

Solo exhibition at Skoto Gallery, New York, NY; group exhibition at Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA: African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back.

Spends three months in Ethiopia, researching and documenting Ethiopian inscriptions, including commercial market, butcher, pub, barbershop, and restaurant signs for series Color of Words, as well as for series of sculptural paintings and assemblages. Visits ancient rock art at Tiya.  Produces first life-size sculpture prototypes using Ethiopian symbols.

2005
Group exhibitions at Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, and Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX.

Samuel P. Harn Museum of the University of Florida at Gainesville acquires Scrolls of the Ancestors IV.

2006
Major solo exhibition Words: From Spoken to Seen – The Art of Wosene Worke Kosrof at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, San Jose, CA, co-curated by Dr. Bárbaro Martinez-Ruíz of Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, and Dr. Allyson Purpura of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC. Exhibition catalogue produced.

Travels to Amsterdam, Netherlands, to see Rembrandt & Caravaggio exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum. Visits Rembrandt’s house and studio; sees extensive collection of artifacts that Rembrandt used to inform and expand his drawing skills and paintings.

Explores Anne Frank’s Amsterdam residence – the Secret Annex – where she hid during Nazi occupation of Amsterdam; reads her journals.

Solo exhibition at Skoto Gallery, New York, NY.  Group exhibition at Parish Gallery, Washington, DC.

Private exhibition at residence of collectors Jolene Tritt and Paul Herzog, New Jersey.

2007
Group exhibition Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art, co-curated by Christine Mullen Kreamer, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney, and Allyson Purpura, at Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC; exhibition travels to Fowler Museum, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), CA.

Solo exhibitions: Mesai Haileleul’s Addis Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta GA.

Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, acquires Ethiopia: Where It All Begins for its permanent collection.

Birmingham Museum of Art, AL, acquires Words of Justice II for its permanent collection.

Invited by curator Nii Quarcoopome to lecture at Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI.

Diagnosis of colon cancer; undergoes successful surgery and begins six-month regimen of chemotherapy. Moves studio into home dining room and, for weakness and nausea, uses painting as healing therapy.

2008
Begins new series of paintings, WordPlay, that emphasizes sculptural and monumental dimensions of Ethiopian script and focuses on script images themselves as bearers of meaning. Wosene explains: “…I’ve been working with script images for many years, and they now seem to have achieved a high level of confidence as individual images of expression. For me, they are much more than elements linked together to generate words. They create a visual language in which each symbol becomes an elegant architectural structure, or a movement in a rhythmic dance, or a grand cultural monument, or a woman walking gracefully wrapped in colorful textiles. When I compose the script forms on canvas, they convey visions, feelings, urban spaces, a momentary view into a life…”

Solo exhibition at Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA.

Mulatu Kosroff, his brother, arrives in California; they travel together around the United States.

Visits Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where he meets John Strawn, owner of Loft Galería. Works soon included in Loft Galería’s group exhibition Driven to Abstraction.

Celebrates birthday in Ankober, Ethiopia, the birthplace region of his mother, Worke Woldegebrael. This occasion, his first birthday to be celebrated in Ethiopia, is toasted generously by family with locally brewed katikala and tej.

Visits Aleyu Amba’s weekly open market; documents local vendors, camels, donkeys, textiles, fruits, and vegetables of the local and Afar communities, for later paintings.

2009
Group exhibitions: Unbounded: New Art for a New Century, The Newark Museum, NJ; Transformations: Recent Contemporary African Acquisitions, Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.

Travels to Berlin, Vienna, and Paris.

Visits with childhood friends resident in Berlin: Adefres Bekele, Admasu Bekele, and Yilma Hailemichael; sifts through childhood photographs, recalls language games played together in Arat Kilo, as further inspiration for paintings.

Stays in Berlin home of collectors Brigitte Biesinger and Dirk Jung, where he meets Munich collector Ursula Varchmin and long-time friend, Mathlene Leiding. Tours Berlin galleries, museums, and street markets.

Encounters sculptures by Spanish Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin. Studies books on Chillida’s sculptures and his museum, outdoor, and coastal installations.

In Vienna, visits the Kunsthistorisches, Albertina, and Beaux Artes Museums. Attends performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Vienna State Opera.

In Paris, explores exhibitions and collections at Centre Pompidou and the Louvre with artist friend Fikru GebreMariam, and visits St. Germaine galleries.

Attends Kandinsky retrospective at Guggenheim Museum, New York. 

Solo exhibitions at Skoto Gallery, New York, NY, and Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, Scarsdale, NY.

Fleming Museum, UVM, in Burlington, VT, acquires mixed media work Midwife IV.

2010
Visits Dubai and meets with Majlis Gallery’s Alison Collins. Exhibition at Majlis Gallery, Dubai, UAE; participates in Dubai’s Bastakiya Art Fair.

A Taste of Words sells at Phillips de Pury & Company’s Africa auction, New York, NY.

Spends several months in Ethiopia producing large-scale sculptures, using Amharic script as core of design; sculptures are planned for exhibition at National Museum of Ethiopia. Participates in and partially funds renovations at the National Museum/Ras Makonnen House for upcoming exhibition. U.S. Embassy in Addis contributes to the renovation project.  Renovated space will be left intact for local artists’ use as a much-needed exhibition space after closing of the WordPlay exhibition.

Solo exhibition WordPlay: The Life of Script in Paintings and Sculptures by Wosene Worke Kosrof opens at the National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; part of the exhibition travels to Awassa and Arba Minch in southern Ethiopia. Exhibition continues at National Museum, Addis, into 2011. Exhibition project funded in part by the Christensen Fund, Ethiopian Airlines, and US Embassy in Addis Ababa.

2011
Remains in Ethiopia for duration and later dismantling of WordPlay exhibition. Donates large sculpture and a painting to the National Museum of Ethiopia.

Solo exhibition at the Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, curated by Janie L.  Cohen: Wosene Worke Kosrof – Paintings from the Paul Herzog and Jolene Tritt Collection.

Spends time with collector friends, Whitney Dall and Barbara Karas Dall, Montpelier, VT, retracing and documenting shared life events and locations in Montpelier and Plainfield for further study for paintings.

2012
Solo exhibition at Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan; accompanied to Japan by collectors, Jolene Tritt and Paul Herzog, and by Fleming Museum curator, Janie Cohen.

Visits with gallerist Mamoru Hiraoka and artist Kayou Kitakomi the Sirakidani International Museum of Contemporary Art in Kochi, founded by multi-media artist, Mitsuhito Takeuchi.

Takes boat trip, during cherry blossom season, from Takamatsu to Japan’s art island, Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea.  Naoshima is renowned for its museums and art installations.  Visits the Chichu Art Museum (chichu = in the earth) designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.  (In 2017, produces painting entitled Ando’s Notebook, now in a private collection in Las Vegas, NV).

Travels to Rome, tours the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum. Travels farther south to spend time in Naples, where he visits the Secret Museum with the Vatican collection of erotic art from Pompeii, later visits Pompeii. Travels to the villages of Formicola and Pontelatone in the Campania to visit Fusco and Izzo families, and to Pietramelara to visit Casillo family.

Mother-in-law, Angela DiRubbo, dies in Berkeley, CA. Creates paintings that memorialize her Bay Area/Berkeley experiences with him.

2013
Solo exhibition at GAFRA (Gallery of African Arts), Cork St, London, UK.  Exhibition is reviewed in Financial Times and features large color image of The Inventor II.

Travels to Puerto Vallarta, MX for an exhibition at Loft Galeria. Buri Gray, widow of Founder of PETER GRAY ART MUSEUM, acquires a painting for the museum, located in the Centro Universitario de la Costa, part of the University of Guadalajara in Puerto Vallarta. Artist presents a slide/lecture on his work to students, faculty, and staff of the university.

Travels to Guadalajara, where he visits the famed murals of historical struggle by José Clemente Orozco at the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, and his murals of Miguel Hidalgo at the Palacio de Gobierno.

Learns that Teshome Bekele, his close childhood friend, fellow student at the School of Fine Arts, and established painter has died in Addis Ababa.

2014
Invited to participate in the 6th Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial: International Exhibition, Sharjah, UAE.  Meets and discusses calligraphic art forms with artists from Iraq, Iran, UK, China, Colombia, as well as with UAE scholars and officials. Presents workshops for children in creating pictures using letters and words.

2015
Solo exhibition at GAFRA (Gallery of African Art), Albemarle St, London, UK. Is interviewed about his exhibition on British television.

Visits the Tate Modern’s permanent exhibitions, as well as Agnes Martin special exhibit.

First visit to Sicily, to explore the arts and architecture and the Arabic influence on the island. Meets the prominent Sicilian writer, Alessandro Sbrogió. Explores the western side of the island, including the regions/towns of Palermo, Segesta with its famous temple, and in the south: Kasbah Mazara del Vallo.

In New York, meets Kaoru Yanase, executive director of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection of Japan, to discuss plans for November 2017 exhibition at that museum’s new international artist wing.

Toronto gallery owner, Lee Brown, invites Wosene to participate in that city’s summer arts fest.

Has solo exhibition at Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan. Visits artist Kayou Kitakomi’s new studio in Kochi. Spends time with the Jyushoku (head priest) at Zen temple in Sakawa.

Visits Keith Haring Museum in Kobuchizawa, meets museum founder, Dr. Kazuo Nakamura.  Further planning for the 2017 museum exhibition.

2016
Solo exhibition at Skoto Gallery, Chelsea/NY, entitled You Are Always New.

Richard B. Woodward, founding curator of African Arts at the Richmond Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, visits Wosene’s studio, discusses museum’s collection and selects a painting, My Liberty, for VMFA’s permanent collection.

2017
Lectures at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for installation of his painting My Liberty in the 21st Century wing. 

Solo exhibition at Nakamura Keith Haring Museum of Japan, titled: WordPlay – Wosene Worke Kosrof.  Exhibit continues until January 2018.  Founder Dr. Kazuo Nakamura acquires exhibition paintings for his permanent collection; Keiko Oishi, President of CMIC Holdings, Ltd. acquires works for her collection.

Celebrates 10th anniversary of first exhibition at Loft Galeria, Puerto Vallarta, MX with a show of recent paintings.

First solo exhibition at Paul Mahder Gallery, Healdsburg, CA.

2018
Paintings highlighted at Dubai Art Fair (UAE); The Art Newspaper headlines painting America: The New Alphabet presented at fair: “Africa’s star is on rise in the Middle East.”

Spends time at Dubai Art Fair with major art collectors, Peter and Agnes Cooke, Brisbane, AU. Visits the Louvre in Abu Dhabi.  Travels on to Ethiopia to care for brother who is increasingly ill.

Invited by Georgia College at Milledgeville, GA, to present a week of master classes.  Visits grave of Flannery O’Connor while in Milledgeville.

Meets Carol Thompson, curator at the High Museum, Atlanta, GA.  Visits significant art collection at Atlanta home of Arthur and Jay Richardson; meets and visits studio of artist Radcliffe Bailey.

Visits with Emily Hanna, curator at Birmingham (Alabama) Museum of Art, and sees his painting, Words of Justice II in BMA’s permanent collection. Visits the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, AL.

Lori Austin, former director of Spirits in Stone and Terra Firma galleries, both of which presented Wosene’s paintings, opens her own gallery – Lori Austin Gallery – in Sebastopol, CA.  She includes Wosene’s original works at the gallery, and introduces him to Lawrence Fairchild, owner of Fairchild Wines, Napa Valley, CA, who acquires several large paintings by Wosene for his vineyard tasting room and home.

Travels to Pittsburgh, PA to visit Carnegie Museum of Art and city galleries. Takes day trip to explore Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater (later creates painting entitled Fallingwater).  Presents brother-in-law Robert DiRubbo with a painting for his 70th birthday.

2019
Travels to Barcelona; visits MIRO and PICASSO MUSEUMS, and the Dali house/museum in Girona; explores Gaudi architecture throughout Barcelona. Attends Barcelona soccer game at Camp Nou.

Solo exhibition at Paul Mahder Gallery, Healdsburg, CA: My Favorite Things.

Visits Gaugin exhibition at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA.

Sees Yayoi Kusuma’s Infinity Room exhibition at the Bellagio Resort, Las Vegas, NV.

Travels to Bella Vista, AR for wedding of brother-in-law Francis DiRubbo and Madeleine Jewell.

Visits Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AR.  Sees works in permanent collection, as well as special Frank Lloyd Wright house moved to museum compound.

2020
Travels to Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao. Documents architecture, landscapes, vegetation for later inclusion in works.

Solo exhibition at Skoto Gallery, Words Matter, Two, closes one week after opening, due to Covid-19 pandemic.  Exhibition, though closed for several months, continues for one year – longest running show ever at Skoto Gallery.  Attends NY Armory Show.

Spends pandemic months preparing for first solo exhibition at Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara, CA, that opens in July, entitled For Love of Words.  Is inspired for studio work by tending garden with pomegranate bush, fig tree, walking irises, Cape gooseberry plants, oregano patch, and rue, among other plants.

Exhibits painting Elemental Coltrane II at DeYoung Museum’s “Open Exhibit” (October 2020 through January 2021)

2021
Invited to participate in traveling group exhibition of eight artists: Towards a 21st Century Abstraction.  Exhibition opens to Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum, Santa Barbara, CA; travels to Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR; Arts Fort Worth, TX; San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, San Angelo, TX; Longview Museum of Fine Art, Longview, TX. 

Solo exhibition at Paul Mahder Gallery, Healdsburg, CA, titled: My Favorite Things.

Exhibition with Edward Cella Art and Architecture opens in October in Los Angeles, entitled WordScapes. Edward Cella Gallery presents Wosene’s paintings at Intersect Aspen Art Fair, CO.

Visits Calder-Picasso exhibition of sculptures, paintings, drawings, and photographs at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA.

Meets major art collector, C. Michael O’Connor, in Las Vegas, NV where they have wide ranging discussions about art, exhibitions, and collections.

Begins new series entitled Beyond Words which focuses on large compositions, primarily in black and white and other compositions in a broad palette of colors. Significant in this series is the attention to abstraction of the script forms, their interplay, the move beyond any literal meaning of words.  The script forms, which in earlier series gradually lost literal meaning, themselves create the visual narrative: script forms as storytellers, abstracted script forms as history, as metanarrative, as autobiography.

Sense and role of color in paintings begins to shift; Wosene: “Color is not as I used to see it, locked in itself. Now color mixes and blends into its surroundings, dialoguing with other colors, with lines in new ways. Colors are jamming, vibrating.  Script forms too are beyond who they once were; they are living objects interacting with and in colors. For me, this is a new dimension in seeing.”

Brother Mulatu Kosroff dies in Addis Ababa.

2022
Edward Cella Art Gallery presents Wosene’s paintings at Intersect Palm Springs Art Fair; Cella arranges with Realm Winery Napa Valley, CA, to acquire painting Heart of Music for winery collection and for use on limited edition Realm Cellars wines.

Solo exhibition When Lives Matter at Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA.

Sees world premiere of Joan Mitchell exhibition at SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, CA.

Attends Alice Neel exhibition at DeYOUNG MUSEUM, San Francisco, CA.

Solo exhibition Beyond Words at Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, CA.

CROCKER MUSEUM OF ART, Sacramento, CA, acquires the large painting,

A Taste for Words X, for its permanent collection.

Invited by architect principal William Glass to exhibit limited edition prints at the MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (MSRI) in Berkeley, CA, to coincide with the installation of its new director, Professor Dr. Tatiana Toro.

2023
Takes first road trip with Patricia to Death Valley, via Bakersfield and Panamint.  Spends a week exploring the various landscapes of the Valley, for future reference in his paintings.  He is especially struck by the view at the lowest point – 286’ at Badwater Basin, recalling the lowest point he knew of in Ethiopia, the Danakil Depression at 410’; and the Valley section titled Artist’s Palette, with the pastel-colored rock strata. These views later find their way into paintings, especially as his starts a long series of small works.

Also drives to eastern side of the Valley, to Death Valley Junction, home of the famed Amargosa Opera House, established in 1967 by the artist and dancer Marta Becket, and stays one night in the Amargosa Opera House Hotel.

Visits the San Francisco Legion of Honor exhibition Sargent and Spain, impressed by Sargent’s perspectives on the Spanish landscapes and cultures, specifically the flamenco works. He reflects on his own travels in Andalusia and Madrid, his own experiences with flamenco, with the landscapes, vegetation, architecture that often appears in his work.

Joins a group of American and German collector friends in Puerto Vallarta, MX; John Strawn and Karen Jenanyan of The Loft Galeria stage a series of gallery events for the group and for local collectors of Wosene’s art.

Travels several times to the CA Central Coast, gathering further images for his coastal series of small works on Cambria, Cayucos, and Pismo Beach.

Lori Austin presents a special exhibition of Wosene’s works at her Sebastopol gallery.

Travels to Italy, Greece, including Santorini, and Turkey.  The dry rugged landscapes become integrated into later works. He is impressed with the dry vineyards of Santorini and the island’s architecture – and both elements figure prominently in later paintings.

Thelma Harris Gallery, Oakland, CA, invites him for a presentation and book signing event for collectors.

2024
Celebrates 30 years of collaboration on photography and limited edition prints with Jay Daniel at Black Cat Studio in Novato, CA.  During those many years, Daniel photographed Wosene’s works for catalogues, books, posters and prints, and produced several series of limited-edition giclee prints.

Visits the MaryCassatt at Work exhibition at the San Franciso Legion of Honor, to study the rhythms of her compositions and the subtleties of her color palette.

Spends time in Puerto Vallarta, MX with colleagues John Strawn and Karen Jenanyan of Loft Galeria, to plan works for August exhibition at Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara.

Danny Jenkins of Waterkolours Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, TN, visits Wosene’s studio and selects works to exhibit in his gallery and at various private shows.

Childhood friend, Shumate Kassahun, with his family, visits and spends time relating memorable stories of Wosene as a young student at the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa. Discussions from such visits with Wosene’s old friends translate into the visual narratives of his script-based abstract paintings.

Opens his solo exhibition Labyrinth of Words at Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara, CA.  The gallery produces an accompanying catalogue, with the text written by Richard B. Woodward.

Celebrates the grand opening of Lori Austin Gallery in Sonoma, CA with a special reception and a series of small paintings from his abstracted coastal series.

2025
Spends one month in Cambria, CA, with Patricia, brother-in-law and sister-in-law Bob and Mignon DiRubbo, exploring sights, colors, natural formations, vegetation of the California Central Coast for continuing his coastal series.  Visits Hearst Castle in San Simeon, the nearby elephant seal rookery, sees zebras in the fields near the Castle. Spends much time at Moonstone Beach in Cambria, documenting with photographs the changing light and colors.

Scott Richards Gallery in San Francisco stages a special exhibition of Wosene’s paintings, co-arranged with Realm Winery of Napa, Ca.  In 2022 Realm acquired Wosene’s painting “Heart of Dance” (2021) for its permanent collection and for use as a label for Realm’s signature cabernet sauvignon wine.  The event combined new works of art and the special Wosene art label with a sampling the premiere wine.

Invited to present to the membership of Kingsley Art Club of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA.  Discusses his career and development as an artist. Presents a series of slides that illustrates his evolving style and artistic maturity

Spends time in Puerto Vallarta with Patricia and daughter Alexia, as Alexia’s graduation gift, to celebrate with a group of visiting artists the 20th anniversary of The Loft Galeria, and to recognize the long partnership and friendship of more than eighteen years with John Strawn and Karen Jenanyan.  From Puerto Vallarta, travels by bus over Jalisco mountains to Guadalajara to visit longtime friend and art collector, Bill Bruff. Observes the vast landscapes of agave plantations from the bus; visits major art installations of Orozco murals in the city.

Travels to Las Vegas with company board members Francis DiRubbo and Madeleine Jewell for annual meeting and to strategize plans and discuss upcoming 2026 exhibition in New York. Visits again Valley of Fire, for documenting rock formations, and changing light and colors in the park.

Daughter Alexia Wosene graduates from UCLA. While in Los Angeles, takes the opportunity to visit Keasha Dumas Heath, executive director of the Museum of African American Art (MAAA) in Baldwin Hills, and to see his painting Gods of the Forest (1993), which was gifted to the museum. Drives south to Santa Ana to visit the Chinese Terra Cotta Warrior exhibition at the Bowers Museum; explores coastal towns of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, CA.

Begins preparing canvases for February 2026 exhibition at Skoto Gallery in Chelsea/New York.

Celebrates Thanksgiving holiday in Puerto Vallarta, MX with John Strawn and Karen Jenanyan, and with other artists represented by Loft Galeria. Among guests are sculptor Maria Bayardo and longtime friend Buri Gray, whose late husband founded the Peter Gray Art Museum in Puerto Vallarta that has one of Wosene’s paintings in its collection.

Organizes an advisory, design, and production team (Debbie Miller, Carol Nast, Cynthia Anstett, Richard B. Woodward, John Strawn, Patricia DiRubbo and design consultant David Mesfin of Long Beach, CA, who designed catalogue for Wosene’s major exhibition at the National Museum of Ethiopia, 2010, to create a new web site that presents an historical narrative and images of paintings over Wosene’s almost fifty year career.

2026
New web site www.wosene.com goes ‘live’ in January.

Celebrates Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas with sister Desta Kosrof, niece and nephew Sosena Asfaw, Dagmawi Tegegn and family in Las Vegas, Nevada. Documents rituals and interactions in photographs for later inclusion in work.

Visits Manet and Morisot exhibition at San Francisco Legion of Honor to observe the artistic style-defining interactions between these two painters.

Delivers and installs a commissioned painting for clients in Houston, TX, and visits with them the Menil Collection and Rothko Chapel.

Attends opening reception of his exhibition Beyond Words at Skoto Gallery in Chelsea (NY).

Spends time at exhibition with many visitors, including family and friends who join him for the opening:  John Strawn of The Loft Galeria in Puerto Vallarta; Christopher, Cara Mia, Stella, and Enzo DiRubbo, from Pittsburgh, PA, collectors Whitney and Barbara Dall from Montpelier, Vermont, artists Mike, Shirley, and Stella Berg from New York and Istanbul, and New York artist Peter Wayne Lewis.

Visits with New York collector/artist friends Ruth Eisenberg and Greg Henren the Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum.  Also sees the museum’s special room of Robert Rauschenberg’s largescale paintings.

Attends and is a presenter at a conference of tribute to his late professor and mentor at the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts, Gebre Kristos Desta, taking place at Oklahoma University in Norman, OK.  In his presentation, he relates memories of his teacher from the late 1960s and early 1970s, how his teacher emigrated to Oklahoma, and details how ‘Gash Gebre’ influenced his own career and painting style.

Paintings from the collection of Jolene Tritt and Paul Herzog (formerly of Arlington VA) are gifted to ten U.S. museums.