Tigist Yoseph Ron: YAYA

  • Fridman Gallery is honored to present YAYA, Tigist Yoseph Ron's debut solo exhibition in the United States. Working primarily with natural charcoal on paper, Yoseph Ron often works in black and white to focus on narrative, emotion, and light.

     

    While her work often explores themes of motherhood and femininity, YAYA shifts focus, capturing the complex emotional dissonance between the artist and her father. Through memory and storytelling, Yoseph Ron reclaims her childlike perspective, observing her father from a distance and unraveling their shared yet estranged connection.

     

    Her compositions begin with a person close to her, and, as her process unfolds, identities soften to prioritize movement and rhythm. At times, the play of light on a figure or an intense emotional moment draws her to focus on the relationships between shapes and forms in each piece.

  • I deeply appreciate my family’s powerful legacy, but I often wish for a lighter burden, a chance to forge my...

    Tigist Yoseph Ron

    Being, 2024

    Charcoal on paper

    58.5 x 33 in. 

    148 x 84 cm.

    I deeply appreciate my family’s powerful legacy, but I often wish for a lighter burden, a chance to forge my own path. Though my father’s strength and my mother’s spiritual lineage provide confidence, I sometimes feel undeserving, and the weight can be debilitating. I wrestle with balancing my Ethiopian and Jewish heritage, my desire for individuality, and my discomfort when straying too far from my roots. Moving to Israel at seven made me question the coexistence of Ethiopian and Israeli cultures. Now, I try to reconcile these influences with my fascination for Black American culture. As I raise my children, I wonder if they need deeper cultural grounding to thrive. Ultimately, a transcendent force moves my hand to the canvas, beyond any singular identity.

    – Tigist Yoseph Ron

  • Artist
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