Zion Yaynu is an Ethiopian-born, Australian-raised self-taught artist known for her vibrant, heavily textured paintings. With a career spanning over 10 years, she has developed a distinctive visual language that embraces spontaneity and controlled chaos, creating richly layered works that express complex, raw emotion. Working primarily with a palette knife, Zion builds, removes, and reworks layers of paint until each piece reaches its final depth and intensity.
Zion has exhibited her work in Australia and Ethiopia, including Interim at Studio 11 (2026), Scribble at Studio 11 (2025), Grey Matter (Love Edition) at Refenti, Bole Bulbula (2022), Artistic Noiz in Fitzroy, Melbourne (2019), and Brain Storm at Walker Street Arts Centre and Gallery, Melbourne (2018). In 2022, she founded Studio 11, a creative space and contemporary art gallery in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she curates exhibitions and supports emerging and established Ethiopian artists.
Drawing from her personal experiences, emotions, and surroundings, Zion's practice explores themes of identity, love, and self-expression. Through her dynamic, textured surfaces, she invites viewers to connect with the emotional depth and complexity embedded within each work.