GEREZAT Opens at Fendika: Tewoldebrehan Kidane Solo Exhibition

In Addis Ababa, the events guide Addis Today lists a free solo exhibition titled GEREZAT (ግርዝት) by the artist Tewoldebrehan Kidane. The listing says the show opens on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 5:00 p.m., which is 11:00 in Ethiopian local time. It says the exhibition runs through Monday, October 19, 2026. In the Ethiopian calendar, Addis Today gives that span as Meskerem 13 to Tikimt 9, 2019.

Addis Today places the venue at Fendika at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and says visitors enter through Estifanos Church. It names Hailu Kifle and Yoseph Sebioksa as the curators. It says Fendika Cultural Center and Hyatt Regency Addis Ababa organize the exhibition together. It describes the work as fine art that explores cultural themes and creative expression. The same listing also appears in Amharic. In both languages, Addis Today says art lovers, collectors, and the wider public can see original works by Kidane in a cultural space the two organizers host together.

The artist, in his curator’s words

Curator Ribka Sisay, in a February 2026 post, described Tewoldebrehan Kidane as an Ethiopian contemporary artist and educator. She described his work as a bridge between ancient spiritual traditions and modern visual expression. She wrote that six years of study in the monasteries of Lake Tana and Axum formed that base, with a focus on sacred art and cultural stories. She called him a mentor and the founder of a studio. She wrote that he has shown work at international embassies and at private venues, and that he has a strong presence in the Addis Ababa art community.

A gallery note from Revelry Boutique Gallery, written for the March 2024 show “Tigray’s Resilience + Hope,” gives an earlier account under the name Tewolde Brehan Kidane. The gallery wrote that he was born in 1982 in Aigrat, Tigray, and that he now works there as an art teacher. It wrote that he attended Abyssian Modern Art School in Addis Ababa, which is the spelling the note uses. It wrote that he studied ancient art in the monasteries of Lake Tana and Axum for seven years and lived with the monks during that study. Sisay’s post says six years. The gallery note says seven. The two published numbers are not the same.

The gallery wrote that he is preparing a book on techniques it calls ancient magic art and magic scroll paintings, including colors made by grinding roots and flowers. It wrote that Mekelle University sponsors that book through its Heritage Department. It wrote that ancient art symbols are part of his paintings. It listed exhibitions at the British and American embassies, the French Embassy Centre, the National Theatre, and the Free Gallery in Addis Ababa. It wrote that Deutsche TV and BBC Amharic News have interviewed him about his art. It wrote that in January 2021 a team of artists chose him to lead a five-day graffiti workshop with orphan children. The note places that workshop at the America Corner, part of the United States Embassy in Mekelle. Works the note names from that 2024 show include “Arc of the Covenant 2,” “Incense,” and “The Future Merigeta.”

A church painting at Narga Selassie on Dek Island, Lake Tana. This is not a work from GEREZAT. Photo: A. Davey / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

That Lake Tana church is one public record of the sacred painting Sisay and the Revelry note both connect to Kidane’s training. The photograph is not a picture of the Fendika exhibition, and it is not offered here as one of his canvases.

Elemental Motions, then a solo room

In February 2026, Sisay curated the group show Elemental Motions at Addis Cinema Complex Art Gallery. Her invitation set the opening for Saturday, February 21, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., which is 12:00 in local time. She wrote, “Elemental Motions brings together the work of Abel Lemma, Simon Abrham, Leul Mekonnen, and Tewoldbrehan Kidane, four artists navigating the pulse of contemporary Ethiopia.” That post spells his name Tewoldbrehan. GEREZAT is a solo exhibition, so the works Addis Today describes are his alone.

Fendika, from the Kazanchis club to the Hyatt

Fendika’s impact report, compiled in June 2021, says the cultural center was established in 2016 for music, dance, and visual art in Addis Ababa. The report says the original Fendika azmari bet opened in the early 1990s in Kazanchis, when that neighborhood had 17 similar rooms. The Christian Science Monitor, in a January 6, 2025 article by Samuel Getachew, described azmaris as poet-musicians in those clubs. The Fendika report names the masinko as an instrument used by singers who worked at the center.

The report says Melaku Belay began managing the azmari bet in 2008. It says he had danced for tips for 12 years, and that he then paid musicians and dancers a monthly salary rather than tips alone. Addis Insight, on October 23, 2024, wrote that Belay did odd jobs as a teenager and slept under the bar for seven years. In those years he trained as a dancer, choreographer, and musician. The Monitor wrote that he was a teenager living on the streets in the late 1990s, and that the club’s owner let him sleep under the bar. The reports do not give one shared count of those early years.

The 2021 report says Belay incorporated Fendika Cultural Center in 2016 and opened the art gallery in July of that year. It says artists receive the exhibition space free of charge, and that Fendika takes no commission when they sell work. It says the gallery showed work by 55 artists in its first five years, and that 90 percent of them were under 40. It names Hailu Kifle, one of the GEREZAT curators, as the curator of those gallery exhibitions. It says shows in that period ran for two to three weeks. Addis Today’s dates for GEREZAT run from September 23 to October 19, 2026, a longer span than that earlier pattern. The report also says Belay created the touring groups Ethiocolor and Fendika in 2009, with tours in Europe, the United States, African countries, and the Middle East. It says a UNESCO IFPC grant in 2016 supported research on azmari music and a festival that, by 2018, brought 16 azmaris together.

Addis Insight reported a farewell concert at the Kazanchis building on the night of October 21, 2024, and wrote that demolition was set to begin on October 22. The Monitor reported that excavators hit the roof on October 23, two days after the final concert. Addis Insight quoted Belay at that farewell: “Until we build something new, our current building will come down.” The Monitor wrote that the city later allowed a rebuild only if Fendika built a 20-story tower. It quoted Belay, in a fundraising note, calling that tower “certainly not our first choice.” It also reported his statement that the tower was the city’s condition for keeping the location. The same Monitor article said Fendika would give concerts at the Addis Ababa Hyatt after the Kazanchis demolition. Addis Today now places GEREZAT at Fendika inside the Hyatt Regency. Addis Insight also wrote that Fendika received a Prince Claus Award as a catalyst for cultural expression in Ethiopia.

Hours and entry

Addis Today says admission is free. It gives the opening time on September 23 and says visitors may see the exhibition through October 19. It does not publish a daily hour-by-hour schedule for the days after opening night. The artist’s name on that listing is Tewoldebrehan Kidane, the same spelling Sisay uses in her February post about his training.