THELMA HARRIS ART GALLERY TO HOST WHITE LINEN AFTERNOON | WOSENE WORKE KOSROF CELEBRATES COLTRANE AT 100

Improvisations in Color” brings new works by the Ethiopian-born painter to Oakland, marking the centennial of jazz legend John Coltrane

OAKLAND, CA — Thelma Harris Art Gallery welcomes summer's close with its signature White Linen Afternoon on Saturday, August 22, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., celebrating the opening of Improvisations in Color: Wosene Worke Kosrof Celebrates Coltrane. The exhibition, on view through October 25, presents a new body of work by the internationally acclaimed, Ethiopian-born artist, created to mark the centennial of jazz giant John Coltrane.

Wosene is celebrated for transforming Amharic script — the written language of his native Ethiopia — into a distinctive visual vocabulary that moves across the canvas with the freedom of a musical phrase. In this new series, that vocabulary meets jazz directly: rhythm, improvisation, color, and movement echo the call-and-response spirit that defined Coltrane's own artistry. The result is a body of work that treats painting as a form of composition, each canvas built the way a musician builds a solo — in the moment, in dialogue with what came before.

Wosene's work is held in more than thirty major collections, including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, among others. He earned his MFA from Howard University as a Ford Foundation Talent Scholar and has exhibited from Addis Ababa to London to Tokyo over a career spanning more than five decades. Guests at the White Linen Afternoon will have the opportunity to meet the artist and view the new works firsthand, with an artist talk scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

EVENT DETAILS

What: Improvisations in Color: Wosene Worke Kosrof Celebrates Coltrane

When: August 22 – October 25, 2026

Opening Reception: White Linen Afternoon, Saturday, August 22, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. | Artist talk at 3:30 p.m. | Dress attire: white linen

Where: Thelma Harris Art Gallery, 5940 College Ave, Oakland, CA 94618

RSVP: thelmaharris.gallery@gmail.com or (510) 654-0443, by Wednesday, August 19