Tsedaye Makonnen

Tsedaye Makonnen primarily works in sculpture, performance, installation, and textiles. Her studio, curatorial, and research-based practice threads together her identity as a daughter of Ethiopian immigrants and a Black American woman, as well as her experience as a doula and a mother. Her work is both an intimate memorialization and a protective sanctuary for Black lives.

Makonnen is the recent recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, DC Public Library Maker Residency, DC Oral History Grant and the Savage-Lewis Artist Residency on Martha’s Vineyard. She has performed at the Venice Biennale, Art Basel Miami, Chale Wote Street Art Festival (Ghana), El Museo del Barrio, Fendika Cultural Center (Ethiopia), Festival International d’Art Performance (Martinique), Queens Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and more. She has spoken on migration and intersectional feminism at the Hirshhorn Museum, Black Portraitures, Common Field, DPLAFest, New York University, and elsewhere. Her light monuments have been exhibited at the August Wilson Cultural Center and National Gallery of Art. In 2019 she was on the front cover of the Washington City Paper’s People Issue. Since the start of 2020, she has been in three exhibitions: a performance art two-person show at the August Wilson Cultural Center curated by Kilolo Luckett, a group show at Maryland Institute College of Art curated by Dr. Deb Willis, a group show at Latchkey Gallery in NYC, and a durational performance at The Africa Center in NYC. She lives in DC with her 9 year-old son.

Photo & Bio courtesy of the artist.