Ethiopian-Israeli artist Michal Worke (b. Ethiopia, 1982) is a Tel Aviv-based painter who moved at age three from Ethiopia to Israel (via Sudan) as part of “Operation Moses” - a covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1980s. This experience has profoundly shaped her studio practice.

As we are and Untitled form part of a body of work that explore the aftermath of migration, a subject which the artist began unpacking during a residency in Addis Ababa in 2022. They also respond to feelings of nostalgia for home as well as experiences of marginalised by members of the Ethiopian communities in Israel: “I wanted to address the theme of ‘things we leave behind’. Migrants leave many things behind, their homes, their culture, their traditions and their native language. I’m concerned about these experiences of rapid change.”

Worke’s paintings combine self-portraiture with domestic scenes of family life and her wider community alongside still lives. A recurring motif across her practice is women wearing the Netela, a handmade scarf-like cloth made of cotton worn by Ethiopian women and a visual signifier of shared experience among Ethiopian communities now living in Israel. Worke’s paintings tend to combine people who she knows with strangers she has observed in an attempt to “give Ethiopian-Israelis a platform and a voice”.

40 x 50cm