Tiemar Tegene is an experimental printmaker born, raised, and living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tiemar's works are anchored in her training as a printmaker, expanding etching processes into monoprinting through spontaneous experiments, most often using household items and their textures. Rather than producing numbered editions struck from the same plate, each work falls outside of fixed descriptions as Tegene finds new ways to press the texture of an image through the application of ink onto the page. Additions of coloured pencil forge repeating icons and patterns, becoming increasingly abstracted whilst adding layers of personal narratives.
Channelling an intimate and complex response to the world around her, Tegene’s compositions are transmutations of her emotional experiences and the nature of her relationships with others. Inside these images live the details and echoes of larger stories, whether relayed in confidence by a friend, overheard on the street, or drawn from song lyrics or film. Consolidating ‘real’ details with flourishes of reference and imagination, her portraiture reaches for specific and consuming emotional moments that ripple through the body and space.
Tegene's artworks are included in numerous collections, such as the Fondation Gandur pour l'Art, the IIZIKO National Gallery, the Africa First Collection, the Kamita Art Collection, the Schwartzman and Associates Collection, and the African Arts Trust Collection.
Solo and dual exhibitions include:
- 2025 We Belong to Time, Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya.
- 2025 Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Darkest of them All?, AKINCI Gallery in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- 2025 Questioned and Assured Existence, Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- 2024 Memories from that Night, Gallery Dotwalk in Delhi NCR, India.
- 2023, Shertan Weha, Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya.
Group exhibitions include:
- 2025 The Roundness of Loss, The Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam, Netherlands.
- 2023 Let's Agree to Disagree, Christine X Art Gallery in Malta.
- 2024 Gathering at Dawn, Mitochondria Gallery in Houston, United States of America.
- 2022 the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in Lithuania.- 2022 James Fuentes Art Gallery in New York, United States of America.
