Why Adulis Exists
Ethiopian Art Doesn't Need Fixing
I grew up in Ethiopia. I left for university in the U.S., and I came back, because I kept meeting people who had no idea what this country actually holds.
I've watched strangers fall in love with Ethiopia the moment they finally see it in person: the churches carved into rock, the color of a coffee ceremony, the weight of the history. I've watched the exact same thing happen with the art, every single time, without exception.
Ethiopian art doesn't need fixing. It needs an introduction. I happen to know everyone it should meet.
— Founder, Adulis Art
The Operating Thesis
Mission, Vision & Goal
Put Ethiopian Art on the Map It Never Should Have Left.
The best Ethiopian artists were never short on talent. They were short on somebody standing between the studio and the collector who'd actually pay what the work is worth. Find them. Grow with them. Become their gallery and their agent — working for them, not just listing them.
Ten Master Works a Month. Then a Gallery. Then a Home.
We're starting narrow, on purpose. Ten master Ethiopian artworks reach collectors every month, each backed by a hundred signed prints, so the work exists at every price point, not only the top of one. As the catalog grows, so does the map: within a year, Adulis pieces hang in galleries and showrooms outside Ethiopia. Within a few years, the artists we represent are known by name, the way the world knows Basquiat's.
And in Addis Ababa: a gallery, and beside it, a working studio large enough for the next generation of Ethiopian artists to build a career there.
Build the Bridge. Then Build the City on the Other Side of It.
Phase one is distribution: ten works, a hundred prints, every month, reaching collectors who have never had the chance to own Ethiopian art before now. Phase two is presence: exhibitions and gallery partnerships around the world, the artists' names carried alongside ours. Phase three is home: a permanent art hub in Addis Ababa, recognized the way Florence is recognized — the place the art world goes, not just where the art comes from.