Nahom Teklehaimanot: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Scar — Who Put You Where You Are?: Circle Art Gallery One

This is Circle's first solo exhibition for Nahom Teklehaimanot who relocated to Nairobi last year. He is an Eritrean visual artist whose work explores migration, memory, displacement, and the fragile architecture of belonging. Working primarily with airbrush and collage, Teklehaimanot creates layered, atmospheric compositions that navigate the emotional terrain between homeland and exile. Raised between Ethiopia and Eritrea, his practice is deeply informed by lived experiences of movement and rupture. His paintings often blur figures, landscapes, and fragments of archival imagery, evoking the way memory dissolves and reconstructs itself over time. Through softness, erasure, and subtle tonal shifts, he examines how identity is shaped by absence as much as presence.

Teklehaimanot holds a Diploma in Information Communication Technology from SMAP Institute of Training, Asmara, Eritrea (2013). Solo and dual exhibitions include When Home Won't Let You Stay (2024) at Addis Fine Art Gallery, Addis Ababa; Unspoken Wars(2024) at AKKA Project Gallery, Venice; and Connectivity of the Identity (2019) at The Gallery, Asmara. Group exhibitions include Addis Fine Art, London; Figure This (2023) and Figure This II (2023) at Sarah Kravitz Gallery, London; Fictions (2022) at Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi; and 4x4+1 (2022) at Chilly Art Project Gallery, London. Art fairs include 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (2024). He is the recipient of the 1st Prize in the Professional Category at the European Union Art Competition (2013).