The Artist
Dawit Williams Algerson is an Ethiopian artist and independent curator based between Moldova, Denmark and Brussels. His practice is rooted in a pursuit of beauty through figuration, while increasingly opening toward abstraction. His paintings focus on still Black figures placed within carefully composed settings, exploring poses that move between fatigue, freedom, liberation and their absence. Through these suspended moments, he creates space for emotion, presence and contemplation.
His visual language is defined by expressive brushstrokes, bold lines, saturated colour combinations and layered surfaces. Flowers, patterned environments and symbolic details often surround his figures, creating a tension between softness and structure. Titles play an important role in this process, extending the emotional and poetic possibilities of each painting while guiding the viewer toward multiple readings.
Black women are central to Algerson’s work. Having grown up surrounded by strong Black women, he places their presence at the heart of his practice as a way of honouring the figures who shaped his understanding of the world. Representation is essential to both his painting and writing. He works to depict the world he sees and experiences while creating images that reflect the complexity, beauty and strength of Black life.
His developing series, "A Chorus Without a Mouth", extends this visual language into more abstract compositions. Crowns, flowers, symbolic forms and accumulated marks become ways of exploring beauty, feeling and the energy held within a painting. In these works, the figure may recede, but the emotional presence of the body remains through colour, gesture and rhythm. The series marks a movement toward abstraction in which noise becomes both visual excess and emotional language.
Alongside this series, Algerson is developing a body of work titled "What Blooms While We Are Still", Presence, centred on women and flowers. The project explores the relationship between portraiture, adornment, nature and memory. Flowers function not only as decorative elements but also as symbols of tenderness, resilience, growth and transformation. Through this work, he continues to create images that honour Black women while allowing their presence to move between the intimate, the symbolic and the monumental.
Algerson’s approach has been shaped by his engagement with other artists and by his experience working within the art world. Collaborating with and learning from many artists during his time at Addis Fine Art encouraged him to express his feelings more directly through painting. His background also includes an MA in Curating from Aarhus University, completed in 2026.
- Medium
- Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
- @artby_dawit_
- Dawit Algerson
Curatorial practice
His curatorial practice is grounded in close collaboration with artists and in an ongoing interest in how exhibitions shape the ways art is encountered and understood. Much of his adult life has been spent working within the art world, developing exhibitions, supporting artists and considering how their work meets different audiences.
For more than three years, he worked as Assistant Curator and Gallery Manager at Addis Fine Art in Addis Ababa, where he was involved in exhibition development, artist relations and gallery operations. In this role, he was also part of the gallery team responsible for its participation in international art fairs, including 1-54 London, Art Dubai and The Armory Show.
As an independent curator, he has worked on projects with UNHCR Moldova, UN Human Rights and the Danish Cultural Institute. He co-curated Echoes of February 2022 with Alexandra Mihalaș, featuring Valeria Duca at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Moldova, and curated Art Against Hate Speech in Chișinău.
He studied sociology at Addis Ababa University and completed an MA in Curating at Aarhus University in 2026. His research focuses on curatorial editing and on how selection, sequencing and display influence the interpretation of art. He is also involved in the Curatorial Ethics Network. This experience continues to inform his painting and writing, particularly his attention to representation and to the conditions through which people and ideas become visible.
