ELIAS SIME: FINAL DROP (የመጨረሻዋ ጠብታ)
JAMES COHAN is pleased to present FINAL DROP (የመጨረሻዋ ጠብታ), an exhibition of new works by Elias Sime. This is Sime’s seventh solo exhibition with James Cohan.
February 20 - April 4, 2026
FINAL DROP (የመጨረሻዋ ጠብታ) features new woven electrical wire assemblages from the artist’s ongoing Tightrope series. Working with electronic components such as circuit boards, computer keys, and telecommunications wires, Sime creates lyrical abstract compositions that shift seamlessly between evocations of landscape, urban topography, the human form, and expansive fields of radiant color. These works represent the movement of material goods across the globe while illuminating the fragility of our networked existence. Reflecting the dynamic interplay between technological progress and human experience, his works capture the ways our lives are bound to the devices that surround us.
While recent Tightrope works have been characterized by subtly shifting tonalities, the new works foreground sinuous biomorphic forms alongside bold geometric patterning. Ovoid, cellular shapes that suggest droplets of water or human gestation and curling vines that evoke budding plant life contain–or are contained–by rhythmic cubic tessellations. These juxtapositions between the axonometric and organic allow Sime to posit connections between our built and natural environments. As Andria Hickey writes, “The use of organic references here evokes a sense of interconnectedness, revealing the ways that mass-produced objects shape both natural and human-made realms. Just as elements in nature go through cycles of growth, decay, and regeneration, the electronic components in Sime’s art undergo a transformation from their original purpose to become part of a new artistic creation, echoing the natural cycles of birth, life, death, and renewal.”
As an extension of his art-making, Sime is deeply committed to the preservation and regeneration of vernacular Ethiopian architecture. Working with his longtime collaborator, Meskerem Assegued, Sime co-founded, designed, and built the award-winning Zoma Museum in Addis Ababa, an environmentally conscious international art center described by The New York Times as “a voluptuous dream, a swirl of ancient technique and ecstatic imagination.” Zoma Museum celebrated its grand opening in its new location in March 2019, with expanded facilities that include a gallery space, library, children’s center, edible garden, elementary school, art and vernacular school, amphitheater, cafe and museum shop.
Building on this vision, Sime and Assegued recently designed and built a new cultural center high in the Entoto Mountains outside of the city center. Whether conceived as a museum or experienced as a work of art, the Entoto site reflects Sime’s distinctive approach: slow, deliberate, and attentive to every detail. At Entoto, art is fully integrated into the landscape: pavements are inlaid with butterflies, walls are carved with hieroglyphic birds, and large sculpted ducks perched atop tall concrete pillars survey the surrounding terrain, merging architecture, sculpture, and environment into a singular, immersive experience.