Echoes of Memory in Constructed Space
Ezana Girma is a visual artist based at 401½ Studios in London whose work examines the shifting ground between memory, place, and imagined structures. His practice emerges from a life shaped by movement between Addis Ababa and London, two cities that inform his visual language in distinct yet interconnected ways. Early training at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa gave him a disciplined understanding of observation and composition, along with an acute awareness of the visual histories embedded in everyday surroundings. Those formative years nurtured his sensitivity to atmosphere and spatial relationships, qualities that continue to guide his approach. Later academic study in Digital Media in London expanded his conceptual framework, introducing new ways of constructing images and thinking about space. Through this convergence of experiences, Girma has developed a body of work that feels both grounded in lived experience and imaginatively reassembled.
The city of Addis Ababa plays a vital role in shaping his artistic vocabulary. Growing up near Merkato, one of the largest marketplaces in the country, he became attuned to the dense clustering of homes, the corrugated metal rooftops, and the constant movement of people returning to tightly packed living quarters at dusk. These impressions sparked his curiosity about the lives unfolding within those compact spaces. Rather than depicting architecture as static infrastructure, he approaches buildings as containers of human experience. The stacked and interconnected dwellings that frequently appear in his work originate from these observations. They carry the emotional weight of proximity, community, and shared urban rhythms. Architecture, in his hands, becomes a social portrait, reflecting not only physical structures but also the collective pulse of the city that shaped him.
Relocating to London introduced a new chapter marked by expanded perspectives and fresh technical possibilities. Exposure to digital media transformed his understanding of space, encouraging him to think in three dimensions and to consider how light and shadow give volume and gravity to form. This shift did not replace his painterly instincts but enriched them. His compositions now balance careful observation with constructed environments that feel almost architectural in their precision. Identity, displacement, and layered belonging surface repeatedly in his work, echoing his own movement across geographies. The result is an artistic practice that bridges continents and disciplines, merging the intimacy of memory with the structural logic of design.
Ezana Girma: The Language of the Ungrounded
Girma describes his journey toward becoming a professional artist as a gradual awakening rather than a single defining moment. Creativity had always been present, yet his distinctive voice crystallized when he began integrating digital media with traditional techniques. This fusion allowed him to reinterpret space through a three dimensional lens, understanding how perspective, depth, and illumination create a sense of weight or suspension. His signature body of work, the Ungrounded series, embodies this evolution. These paintings often depict architectural clusters that appear suspended without visible foundations, inviting viewers to consider the tension between stability and uncertainty. Through this visual strategy, he captures the sensation of hovering between clarity and doubt, a condition that resonates strongly in contemporary life.
One of the most significant works within this series is a painting titled “Without a Fear.” Created from a deeply personal emotional state, the piece portrays interconnected dwellings floating without a discernible base. The absence of grounding suggests both liberation and vulnerability, as though the structures are freed from gravity yet exposed to the unknown. Girma has described the work as embodying the feeling of walking on air, an image that encapsulates living in an era of immense knowledge and rapid transformation. Despite the abundance of information surrounding us, he questions whether it rests on a stable foundation. “Without a Fear” captures that paradox with striking clarity, presenting instability not as collapse but as a charged space of possibility.
Symbolism plays a central role in articulating these ideas. Windows recur as powerful motifs within the Ungrounded series, functioning as metaphors for wisdom and perception. A narrow window suggests a limited viewpoint, while a wide opening implies openness and intellectual generosity. Light streaming through these apertures becomes a stand in for knowledge itself, illuminating interior spaces and shaping how structures are understood. Through such imagery, Girma constructs a visual language that probes the act of seeing and understanding. His paintings encourage viewers to question how much of what we perceive is firmly rooted and how much exists in suspension, shaped by shifting perspectives and incomplete certainties.
Between Sky and Structure
Daily life in Girma’s studio revolves around experimentation and attentive observation. Sketching forms the backbone of his routine, serving as a space for testing ideas and exploring the expressive potential of line and shape. He often begins with an interior stillness, a quiet mental landscape awaiting disruption. The first mark on the canvas can feel like the opening note of a melody, setting a rhythm that guides subsequent decisions. Jazz music provides a fitting analogy for this process. Sharp, angular lines may echo a high note, while elongated curves resemble lower tones that stretch across the composition. This musical sensibility infuses his work with a sense of movement and improvisation, even when dealing with architectural subjects.
His attraction to three dimensional architectural drawing developed gradually through engagement with digital creation. Academic training in digital media reshaped his perception of built environments, encouraging him to consider how structures occupy space, cast shadows, and interact with surrounding light. Buildings in his paintings are not flat facades but volumetric presences that breathe within their settings. Perspective becomes a tool for conveying psychological depth as much as physical dimension. This approach reflects his broader interest in how environments shape identity and emotion. By rendering architecture with tangible weight and spatial complexity, he transforms familiar forms into contemplative spaces that invite reflection.
Life experiences beyond formal education have also broadened his artistic outlook. Working as a seaman allowed him to travel across continents, encountering diverse landscapes, cultures, and ever changing skies. These journeys sharpened his awareness of light as more than illumination. Sunlight carries mood, atmosphere, and narrative depending on where it falls. The sky itself becomes a shifting presence rather than a static backdrop. Settling in the United Kingdom introduced yet another layer to his perception, adding fresh contrasts to his visual memory. Each phase of movement has deepened his sensitivity to environment, reinforcing his fascination with the interplay between sky and structure that defines much of his work.
Ezana Girma: Sound, Spirit, and the Colour of Thought
Inspiration for Girma often emerges from unexpected intersections. He has spoken of being stirred by the tension between societal constructs and untamed natural forces, a dynamic that resonates with his suspended architectural forms. This interplay reflects a broader curiosity about how human systems coexist with elements beyond control. Creativity, in his view, rarely follows a predictable path. An idea may surface from a fleeting visual impression or from contemplating how communities organize themselves within built environments. These sparks accumulate and eventually find expression through paint and composition. Such openness to unlikely sources keeps his practice fluid and responsive, ensuring that each new work grows organically from lived observation and internal questioning.
The concept of sound occupies an intriguing place in his thinking. He believes that every artwork carries its own quiet symphony, expressed through rhythm, color, and spatial arrangement. Lines can hum, textures can vibrate, and the spaces between forms can breathe with subtle resonance. This perspective aligns with his jazz inspired approach to beginning a painting, where the first gesture establishes a tempo. Viewing visual art as capable of embodying sound expands the sensory dimension of his practice. Paintings are not silent objects but dynamic presences that invite viewers to listen with their eyes, perceiving tonal shifts in hue and movement in compositional flow.
Spiritual reflection also informs his imaginative associations. Coming from a deeply spiritual family, he attributes symbolic meaning to numbers and colors. The number seven, widely regarded as representing completion and divine connection, appears to him not merely as a numeral but as a hue. He envisions it as a vast and tranquil blue infused with indigo undertones, a color that suggests depth, calm, and contemplation. This synesthetic response illustrates how abstract concepts translate into visual sensation within his mind. Through such connections between spirit, color, and structure, Girma continues to shape an artistic language that bridges thought and image, grounding intangible ideas within suspended cities of paint and light.
