2 MAY until 30 MAY 2025
Opening – 2 MAY 2025, 6-9 pm

Esther Schipper is pleased to announce Merikokeb Berhanu’s first exhibition with the gallery. On view will be all new paintings. Merikokeb Berhanu’s work combines abstract and representational elements, forging a distinct formal vocabulary. Born in 1977 in Addis Ababa, Berhanu’s painting bears traces of her studies with a generation of Ethiopian painters who had themselves absorbed modernist aesthetics for an African context. At the same time, Berhanu’s engagement with the relationship of abstraction and figuration demonstrates the clear-eyed originality of her vision. While Berhanu’s work has long had a focus on lifeforms and biomorphic imagery, the artist begun to use more vibrant color combinations and new symbols after her 2017 move to the US, as she grappled with the implications of a society estranged from nature. Since her inclusion in the 2022 Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams, the artist has exhibited widely in Europe and the US. Among recent exhibitions are: Making Their Mark curated by Cecilia Alemani, Shah Garg Foundation, New York (2023) and Ethiopia at the Crossroads, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (2023).

2 MAY until 31 MAY 2025
Opening – 2 MAY 2025, 6-9 pm

Esther Schipper is pleased to announce Romantic Room, an exhibition by Sun Yitian with all new paintings. This is Sun’s third project with the gallery, following her exhibition in Paris and a presentation at Berlin’s Niche space, both in 2023, the year she joined the program. Romantic Room continues Sun Yitian’s multi-layered approach to understanding what an image is and can be in contemporary painting. Born 1991 in Zheijang, Sun Yitian’s paintings explore her personal history, intertwined with cultural and societal changes in China, through the country’s image worlds, as well as by how Western culture has been depicted in Chinese everyday life. A particular focus is on images that refer to religious iconography and motifs from fairy tales. Sun embeds these in sophisticated compositions that hold suspended multiple perspectives, cultures, and even temporal associations. The artist draws on imagery from art history, mass-produced consumer objects and toys, amusement parks, but also on childhood memories and observations from daily urban life. Sun’s paintings are sophisticated hybrids, carefully constructed to destabilize conventions of seeing while seducing the viewer’s gaze with their seamless execution.