Shared Visions

Abstract

Piet van Peter and Zeradawit Welda Rufael are two painters, who both produce paintings that are similar yet different: similar because the two artists start from the same visual directive, but different because each of them interprets the initial idea according to his cultural context of origin. Piet is an American eccentric ex photographer who moved in 2006 from California to Amsterdam (the Netherlands). He defines himself as a “cartoon surrealist,” and he loves traveling and getting in touch with other cultures. He uses art as an instrument to play and share as a way of communicating in diverse cultural contexts. Zeradawit is a traditional Ethiopian painter originally from Aksum, who moved to Addis Ababa and there learned to paint as a self-taught artist. He uses art as a medium of communication to spread the messages that comprise the Holy Bible. The two protagonists live respectively in the Netherlands and in Ethiopia, but at the same time they have been working together for several years, influencing each other in their artistic practice. Fueled by their will to learn from each other, Piet and Zeradawit meet each other several times during the year in Addis Ababa. They cross-pollinate their styles, influencing each other with diverse visual clues. In a sense, they are copying from each other, taking the good side of their differences and using their diverse cultural backgrounds as the strong point of their collaboration.