Elias Sime is a multi-disciplinary artist, best known for his large-scale reliefs made from recycled consumer electronics. Sime’s process is motivated by a will to reclaim and re-examine our relationship to our environment. He uses braiding and layering techniques to create vast mosaics composed of keyboards, circuits, wires, and all manner of e-waste imported into his home country, Ethiopia. These materials are sourced from the largest open-air market in Africa located in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Elias Sime, one of the most prolific artists of our time has been using electronic components to express his observation and imagination of humanity’s complications and its future. A processor is the key component of an electrical circuit necessary to interpret and execute electrical signals fed into the device. Behind the Processor is an extension of Elias’ TIGHTROPE series that began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2013 and has been traveling in different galleries and museums around the world. - Meskerem Assegued, 2023
Sime’s works serve as records of the global exchange of commodities, and the conceptual transformations of matter from raw materials, to machine, waste, and finally as art. He alternates between biomorphic forms, landscapes, and pure abstraction, relying on the materials to guide his intuitive, measured approach. The equilibrium of universalists concepts—between humanity and nature, progress and tradition, material, and concept—are explored in the series Tightrope. The title refers to the precarious balance between the advancements that technology has made possible and their detrimental impact on the environment. Sime’s works draw upon their materiality, to comment on the resilience of nature, social responsibility, and the beauty of the utilitarian.
Elias Sime is deeply involved in developing the Ethiopian art community and has established a research practice studying the ancient rituals of rural communities in the country. Together with his long-time collaborator, curator and anthropologist Meskerem Assegued, Sime founded the Zoma Museum which opened in Addis Ababa in 2019. In the same year, Sime was awarded the African Art Award by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and he was a 2020 Hugo Boss Prize Nominee. Sime was included in the exhibition Il latte dei sogni at the 59th Biennale di Venezia (2022), curated by Cecilia Alemani, in Venice (IT).
Selected collections include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (JP); The Ahmanson Foundation, Los Angeles, CA (US); The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Orlando, FL (US); Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection, Little Rock, AR (US); Chrysler Museum of Arts, Norfolk, VA (US); Cleveland Clinic Art Collection, Cleveland, OH (US); Denning House Art Collection, Stanford University, Stanford, CA (US); Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA (US); Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (US); Fondation H, Antananarivo (MG); Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (US); Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (US); Israel Museum, Jerusalem (IL); Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (US); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (US); N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI (US); New Orleans Museum of Art, LA (US); Newark Museum, Newark, NJ (US); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (US); North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND (US); Norval Foundation, Cape Town (ZA); Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL (US); The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. (US); Pizzuti Collection at the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (US); Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ (US); Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (CA); Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (US); Toledo Museum of Art, OH (US); Utah Museum of Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT (US); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (US) as well as in many private collections.
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Elias Sime: Eregata እርጋታ
David Trigg, Studio International, November 20, 2023 -
Review: Elias Sime at the Arnolfini - ‘Eregata’
Noah Robinson, Epigram, November 11, 2023 -
The Artist Repurposing Ethiopia’s E-Waste
Something Curated, November 6, 2023 -
Elias Sime
Jessica Baran, Art Forum, January 2, 2021 -
34 galeries om in het nieuwe seizoen te bezoeken (in Dutch)
Het Parool, August 29, 2020 -
Elias Sime Remixes Tech Detritus in Stunning New Works
Art & Object, August 7, 2020 -
How Ethiopian art secured its spot on the world's stage
Ginanne Brownell, CNN, July 31, 2020 -
Best Bets: Elias Sime, Cirque Italia, Renée Fleming, Poetic Justice, 'Dog Days of Summer'
SLT, July 30, 2020 -
‘I Had to Fight to Show What I Could Do’: How Elias Sime Emerged as One of Africa’s Leading Contemporary Artists
Will Fenstermaker, Artnet News, March 25, 2020 -
Elias Sime, Wellin-featured artist, is honored at Smithsonian’s 2019 African Art Awards
Karina Bayrakdarian , The Spectator, November 7, 2019 -
Smithsonian Honors Wellin Exhibiting Artist Sime
Vige Barrie, Hamilton, October 28, 2019 -
Love and Craftsmanship in the Relationship Between Machines and Humanity
Seph Rodney, Hyperallergic, September 17, 2019 -
Elias Sime
Zack Hatfield, Artforum, September 3, 2019 -
‘It’s All About Life’: Ethiopia’s Newest Art Museum Doubles as an Experiment in Environmental Sustainability
Kate Brown, Artnet News, April 22, 2019 -
Addis Fine Art: helping Ethiopian artists thrive at home and abroad
Rebecca Anne Proctor, The National, March 21, 2019 -
Het afval van rijke landen (in Dutch)
Kees Keijer, Het Parool, January 11, 2019 -
Elias Sime
Leigh Anne Miller, Art in America, May 18, 2017 -
Arts Center in Ethiopia Links Local and Global
Ginanne Brownell Mitic, The New York Times, June 16, 2016 -
Feature: Elias Sime
Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Pin-Up, March 21, 2016 -
Finding Our Way Amid the Modern Fatalism of Circuit Boards
Seph Rodney, Hyperallergic, October 14, 2015 -
In Sprawling Panels, Ethiopian Artist Elias Sime Recycles the First World’s Circuit Boards
Alex Allenchey, Artsy, October 1, 2015 -
Elias Sime Recycles Discarded Objects Into Abstract Works
Holland Cotter, The New York Times, October 1, 2015 -
Ethiopian artist Elias Sime's New York debut exhibition opens at James Cohan Gallery
Art Daily, September 15, 2015 -
Elias Sime
Quinn Latimer, Frieze, June 1, 2009 -
State of Play: Elias Sime at Santa Monica Museum of Art
Christopher Miles, L.A. Weekly, April 8, 2009 -
An artist’s saving grace
Scarlet Cheng, Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2009