Elias Sime: Early Works

October 25 - November 23, 2024

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  • James Cohan is pleased to present a special exhibition of early work by Elias Sime, on view at the gallery’s 52 Walker Street viewing room from October 25 through November 23, 2024. 

    Elias Sime creates densely layered assemblages of everyday materials, transforming them into lyrical meditations on the world around him. Predating Sime's well-known Tightrope series, these canvases, made between early 2000s and 2009, represent the stylistic and conceptual foundations of the artist’s later, monumental tableaus composed of braided wire and mosaic-like arrangements of electrical components.
  • In this early body of work, Sime stitches thread, yarn, buttons, bottle caps and other found objects onto canvas, creating highly textured surfaces and vivid color fields. These works, ranging from figuration to abstraction, highlight Sime’s handling of material with the fluency and formal instincts that lie at the heart of his practice.
  • These distinctive works are inspired by traditional Ethiopian practices of weaving and embroidery. Having grown up amidst this tradition, Sime...
    These distinctive works are inspired by traditional Ethiopian practices of weaving and embroidery. Having grown up amidst this tradition, Sime found the use of the stitched yarn and textile as natural avenues to express himself. 
  • By incorporating buttons, bottle caps, toy arms, and clothing, Sime gives a second life to these objects. In the artist’s own words, “Each material I collect has its own story, and has been touched by many hands. It has its own language. All the different stories related to the material move me, and I transform these intuitive reactions into my compositions.” His materially-responsive process gives voice to both these stories and  the surrounding landscape.

  • Sime encourages viewers to look slowly and closely, tracing each fiber stitched onto the canvas. By engaging with the work in this way, we echoe the artist’s own process. Tracy L. Adler, Director of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College notes,

    "This notion of slow looking is integral to Sime's approach. In our fast-paced world, he reminds us that we must take the time to observe closely, to follow each thread. Once we allow ourselves to do so, we can get lost in the details of Sime's surfaces. His work initiates a meditative process that encourages engaged study and reflection. As we investigate and interrogate the work, we also learn about our own process of viewing it."¹

     

  • Checklist

  • Elias Sime (b.1968 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) has been the subject of major solo exhibitions, most recently Eregata እርጋታ at Arnolfini...
    Photo by Alice Hendy

    Elias Sime (b.1968 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) has been the subject of major solo exhibitions, most recently Eregata እርጋታ at Arnolfini in Bristol, United Kingdom (2023), which was accompanied by a catalog and traveled to Hastings Contemporary in Hastings, United Kingdom (2024). Other solo exhibitions include Currents 118: Elias Sime at the Saint Louis Art Museum, MO (2020), Elias Sime: Tightrope, The Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, NY (2019), which traveled to the Akron Art Museum in Akron, Ohio, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. His installation, Roots, is on permanent view at the John Hopkins University, Washington D.C.


    The solo exhibition Elias Sime: Dichotomy ፊት አና ጀርባ, an official Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, is currently on view at Spazio Tana, Castello in Venice, organized by Kunstpalast Düsseldorf. The exhibition runs through November 24, 2024. Selected works from this presentation will be featured in a forthcoming exhibition at the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf in Germany, scheduled to open in February 2025.          LEARN MORE →

  • ¹ Adler, Tracy L., "Interview with Elias Sime and Meskerem Assegued", in Elias Sime: Tightrope (Prestel, 2020),  p. 30.