Ethiopian artist Aida Muluneh is one of the most influential voices in contemporary African photography. With a distinctive visual language that blends photography, graphic design, and painting, she challenges stereotypical representations of the African continent and creates a striking aesthetic rooted in symbolism, vibrant color, and spiritual depth.
Muluneh’s work features powerful, often hieratic female figures portrayed in bold primary tones. Her images function as visual manifestos—politically charged yet poetic—reframing narratives around migration, identity, and cultural heritage. A former photojournalist for The Washington Post and the founder of Addis Foto Fest, East Africa’s first international photography festival, Muluneh merges artistic creation with deep cultural engagement.
Her work is currently on view in a solo exhibition at the Playlist Gallery by Giampaolo Abbondio in Milan. Titled “The Homeless Wanderer”—inspired by the composition of the same name by Ethiopian pianist and composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou—the show unveils a world of quiet power and spiritual resonance. The exhibition runs through July 30, 2025.
“Her photographs are visionary “windows” that blur realism with illusion and magic, offering an Africa that renews existence. In her art, the line between migration and permanence, escape and return, memory and reality is blurred. Her strict geometric compositions are inhabited by alien yet precise female figures, each performing a deliberate act in a specific moment, sacralizing the everyday through the slow rhythm of an ancient ritual foreign to Western experience.” Jacqueline Ceresoli
Aida Muluneh (b. Addis Ababa, 1974) studied Film and Communications at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her photographs have been widely published and are part of major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Hood Museum, the RISD Museum of Art, and the Museum of Biblical Art in the United States. In 2019, she became the first woman of African descent to co-curate the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition, returning in 2020 as its commissioned artist.
Muluneh has served as a juror for prestigious competitions such as the Sony World Photography Awards and the World Press Photo Contest (2017). She is a frequent speaker at international forums including the African Union Cultural Summit, Art Basel, TEDx Johannesburg, and the World Press Photo Festival in Amsterdam, where she delivered the acclaimed Sem Presser Lecture. As a Canon Ambassador and founder of the Addis Foto Fest (AFF)—East Africa’s first international photography festival—Muluneh remains a key voice in cultural entrepreneurship and photographic education across Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire.
Playlist – Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio
June 12 – July 30, 2025
Via Archimede 73, 20129 Milan