Gracing the expansive Dietrich Exhibition Gallery at the Wellin Museum of Art (Figs. 1–2), the exhibition Elias Sime: Tightrope presented twenty-eight large-scale wall-mounted compositions, many of them between 10 and 21 feet wide, as well as two three-dimensional installation works. A film produced for the exhibition included commentary by the artist and footage about his work and process. The film also documented Elias Sime's association with the Zoma Contemporary Art Center and its successor, the Zoma Museum (dedicated in 2019) in Addis Ababa, an art project in its own right. Sime co-founded the Zoma Museum with Meskerem Assegued, an anthropologist, contemporary art curator, and Sime's frequent collaborator.
Elias Sime was born in 1968 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he continues to live and work. In 1990, he graduated with a degree in graphic art from the Addis Ababa University School of Fine Arts and Design, but began to make art...