Born in 1976. Dereje Shiferaw’s current body of work utilizes bold and deliberate strokes made with oil pastel, acrylic paint and water color. His mixed media techniques on paper and canvas evoke a multidimensional world of composition depicted in contested environments. Shiferaw’s approach to portraying Black subjects and subjectivities center on an unapologetic emboldening of facial features that maximize the adornment and celebration of subaltern black bodies. His style challenges formal approaches to the medium, enabling a politicized personal subjectivity to emit from the faces and facial features he depicts. For years, Shiferaw has pondered philosophies of togetherness. One plus one is not exclusively two as per the titular equation. A sum could be infinitely more than a singular sum of disparate parts. He contextualizes his work in this wonder and the suggestion that there is truth to be found in what remains unrevealed. Shiferaw improvises black line work in dialogue with his extensive use of black. Organic forms emerge from a sense of calculated abandon. This improvisation connects his philosophical pondering of the unrevealed with his visual arts practice and technique. Shiferaw has exhibited work in Ethiopia and abroad. In 2022 his solo show was presented at Christine X Art Gallery in Sliema, Malta. His work has exhibited in group shows, most recently at SPAZJU KREATTIV in 2023 for a retrospective on contemporary African Art in Valletta, Malta and in the past at Gravit Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya. Shiferaw currently lives and works with his wife and children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.