Headdress 54
- Mixed Media
- 66 x 45 in
- Metaferia Helina
This artwork was a part of an exhibition that commemorated the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and meditates on his concept of agape — King spoke about the Greek concept of agape, or brotherly love and compassion, a social concept he defined as “understanding, creative, redemptive good will for all men.” The highest form of love that can only be known when we allow ourselves to let go of fear and anger and recognize our innate interconnectedness. This concept is intricately linked to pro-immigration conceptions and how we must navigate throughout the world.
Helina Metaferia is an interdisciplinary artist working across collage, assemblage, video, performance, and social engagement. Through a hybrid of media, Helina's practice is concerned with exploring overlooked stories relating to the Black experience, mainly in the context of the West. She approaches this by centering Black bodies, mostly women, in positions of power and vulnerability to interrogate complex histories of systemic oppression, questioning how it informs personal experiences and interpersonal relationships. She is also influenced by her Ethiopian heritage, often drawing upon traditional African art sensibilities in her work, specifically the intersection of visual art and ritual.
As a research-based artist, Helina's work is informed by written and oral archives, dialogical art, and somatic practices. She is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow / Assistant Professor at Brown University. Helina's work has appeared in numerous institutional solo and group exhibitions including Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit; Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, among many others. Her solo exhibition, Generations opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in Autumn 2021. Helina's work has also been supported by several artist residencies including MacDowell, Yaddo, Bemis, MASS MoCA, and Triangle Arts Association. She is also a participant of the 2021 Drawing Center's Viewing Program. Helina received her MFA from Tufts University's School of the Museum of Fine Art and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.