TSEDAYE MAKONNEN
Awards, Fellowships, Grants
2022 - Franklin Furnace Fund
2022 - Clark Art Institute Futures Fellowship
2021 - Landmark Public Art Commission
2021 - GLB Memorial Project Seed Grant
2019 - Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship
2019 & 2021 - Semifinalist Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize
2019 - DC Oral History Collaborative Partnership Grant
2018-2022 - DCCAH Arts and Humanities Fellowship Award
Acquisition
2020-21 - Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Senait and Nahom: The Peacemaker and the Comforter, light sculptures, Washington, D.C.
Current
2021-2023 - Landmark Public Art Commission, Providence, RI
2023 - Call and Response: A Narrative of Reference to Our Foremothers in Gynecology, Hutchins Center, Harvard University (Curated by Dell Hamilton)
Upcoming
Sept 2023 - Peace, Power and Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa, Bard GC, New York, NY (curated by Emanuel Admassu)
Nov 2023 - Africa and Byzantium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (curated by Andrea Achi)
Dec 2023 - Ethiopia at the Crossroads, Walters Museum, Baltimore, MD (curated by Christine Sciacca)
Recent
Oct 2022 - Lorraine O’Grady, Tsedaye Makonnen & Ayana Evans, virtual conversation, WPA
Oct 2022 - Simone Leigh’s Loophole of Retreat: Venice , performance, Venice Biennale, Italy (organized by Rashida Bumbray, Saidiya Hartman, Tina Campt)
Fall 2022 - Futures Fellow, research fellowship, The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
Fall 2022 - Franklin Furnace Fund, award recipient, New York, NY
June 2022 - Black Portraitures Venice, presentation, Venice Biennale, Italy
June-Dec 2022 - Sibyls Shrine Residency, group exhibition, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
Feb-Apr 2022 - Dyschronics, group exhibition & performance, Artspace New Haven, CT (curated by Laurel McLaughlin)
Past Exhibitions
Nov 2021 - 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, group exhibition, London, UK (curated by Addis Fine Art)
Summer 2021 - CF Hill Gallery, group exhibition, Stockholm, Sweden (curated by Addis Fine Art)
Apr 2021 - Art Dubai, exhibition, Dubai, UAE
May 2021 - Which Bridges to Cross and Which to Burn, two-person exhibition & residency, Standard Space Gallery, Sharon, CT (curated by Douglas Everett Turner), Wassaic Project and Center for Performance Research.
Jan-Dec 2021 - National Museum of Women in the Arts, RECLAMATION: Recipes, Remedies and Rituals, group exhibition, Washington, DC (curated by Melani Douglass)
Feb 2021 - Sibyls Shrine: Taking Care, group exhibition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA (curated by Jessica Moss)
Feb 2021 - (ir)Reverent Futures, group exhibition, Dalbin Gallery, Paris, FR (curated by Niama Safia Sandy)
Feb 2021 - Black Equity, virtual exhibition, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY (with Ayana Evans)
Aug 2020 - Park Avenue Armory, 100 Women | 100 years, virtual group exhibition, New York, NY (organized by Dr. Deborah Willis, Tisch School of the Arts NYU, Park Ave Armory)
Oct 2020 - 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, group exhibition, Somerset House, London, UK
Sept 2020 - Carrie Furnaces, film collaboration with Alisha B. Wormsley, Pittsburgh, PA
July-Aug 2020 - Untitled Art Fair, virtual solo show, booth & artist talk (organized by Addis Fine Art Gallery)
July 2020 - Art at a Time Like This, virtual group exhibition (curated by Seph Rodney)
May-June 2020 - Washington Project for the Arts, Black Women as/and the Living Archive, curatorial project, D.C.
Jan-Apr 2020 - August Wilson African American Cultural Center, I Came by Boat so Meet me at the Beach, two-person exhibition with Ayana Evans, Pittsburgh, PA (curated by Kilolo Luckett)
Jan-Mar 2020 - Meyerhoff Gallery, Migration(s) and Meaning in Art, group exhibition and panel, Baltimore, MD (curated by Deborah Willis)
Feb-Mar 2020 - Latchkey Gallery, A Muffled Sound Under Water, group exhibition, performance & panel, New York, NY (curated by Tariku Shifferaw & Alteronce Gumby)
Sept-Dec 2019 - Carroll Square Gallery, solo exhibition, Washington, DC
Aug 2019 - Art On the Vine, group exhibition, Martha’s Vineyard, MA (organized by Jessica Stafford Davis)
2018-2019 - Familiar Boundaries, Infinite Possibilities, group exhibition, August Wilson Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA (curated by Kilolo Luckett)
2018 - Hyphen American, curatorial exhibition, GWU Gallery 102, Washington, DC (collaboration with Rex Delafkaran)
Performances, Talks, & More
Nov 2020 - The Momentary, film screenings and artist talk, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art (organized by Inverse Performance Art Festival)
Sept 2020 - Carrie Furnaces, film collaboration with Alisha B. Wormsley, Pittsburgh, PA
July 2020 - Cuesta College, virtual performance and artist talk, San Luis Obispo, California
June 2020 - For/Four, virtual panel discussion (created by Niama Sandy Safia)
June 2020 - What Does the Afrofuture Say, virtual talk (created by Ingrid LaFleur)
May 2020 - Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA) and Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), EXODUS (Movement of our people), virtual panel (organized by Nyugen Smith)
Feb 2020 - Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, artist talk, Washington, DC
Nov 2019 - When Drowning is the Best Option feat. Astral Sea I, performance, Venice Biennale, Italy
Oct 2019 - Black Portraiture(s) Conferences, Black Performance Art and the Archive, panel discussion, New York University, NY (moderated by Ayana Evans)
Apr 2019 - Venice Biennale: Arsenale, performance, Venice, Italy
Apr 2019 - National Gallery of Art, Aberash: multimedia installation, Washington, DC
Apr 2019 - Digital Public Library of America Fest, presentation, Chicago, Illinois
Apr 2019 - New York University, NewYorkScapes' Culture Mapping Symposium, New York, NY
Apr 2019 - Common Field Convening, The (re)Making of Memory, panel discussion, Philadelphia, PA (organized by Martina Dodd)
Mar 2019 - Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, El Anatsui’s Lost Wax design and install assistant, Loire, France
Residency
2021- Black Femme Residency, Wassaic Projects, NY
2020-present - Sibyl Shrine, network residency, Pittsburgh, PA
2019 - Savage-Lewis Residency, collaboration with Ayana Evans, Martha’s Vineyard, MA (organized by Art on the Vine)
Aug 2019 - Siren Arts Residency, performance, Asbury Park, NJ (organized by Transformer Gallery)
2018-2019 - Maker-in-Residence, Maker Lab, DC Public Library Foundation, Washington, DC
2018 - El Anatsui Studios, Nsukka, Nigeria
2018 - Artist Mother Studio, Rhizome, Washington, DC (organized by Amy Hughes Braden)
2016 - 39th Street Gallery, Brentwood, MD (organized by John Paradiso)
Other
2012-2017 - Mamatoto Village Inc, birth/labor/postpartum doula and childbirth educator, Washington, DC
2013-2017 - Lead Art Teacher, Shaw Community Center, Washington, DC
Press & Publications
“American Artists and Reproductive Justice,” Gagosian Quarterly. Summer 2023. pp.114-119. Written by Salomé Gómez-Upegui.
“‘On Living Archives’: Tsedaye Makonnen on Collaboration and Black Performance Practices,” In the Foreground: Conversations on Art & Writing. The Clark Art Institute. 2022. Interview by Caitlin Woosley.
“Discovering How Black Women Might Forge a Path to Freedom,” Hyperallergic. 2022. Written by Seph Rodney. https://hyperallergic.com/773051/loophole-of-retreat-venice-biennale-2022/
“Tsedaye Makonnen’s Astral Sea: Critical Refugee Studies and the Black Mediterranean,” American Quarterly, Volume 74, Number 2, 2022, pp. 441-452. Written by Emily Hue. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sCAFhSv-ZgNJKXNz_3opz6Cu_0svO-hO/view
“Astral Sea,” Women and Migration(s) II. 2022. Edited by Kalia Brooks, Cheryl Finley, Ellyn Toscano, Deborah Willis. https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0296
“Tsedaye Makonnen’s Art Addresses Reproductive Healthcare Inequalities Affecting Black Women,” Artsy. 2022. Written by Ayanna Dozier. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-tsedaye-makonnens-art-addresses-reproductive-healthcare-inequalities-black-women
“Dyschronics,” Artspace New Haven Catalogue. 2022. Organized by Lisa Dent and Laurel McLaughlin. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ltiLlfLieg_PJ0E9j25WVqBRl_itCUDO/view?usp=sharing
“Reclamation, Recipes, Remedies, Rituals,” National Museum of Women in the Arts. 2022.
“Issue 132 - The Black in the Mediterranean Blue,” Transition Magazine. 2021. Edited by Wole Soyinka and Alessandra Di Maio. https://transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu/issues/issue-132/
“Issue 131,” Transition Magazine. 2021. https://transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu/issues/issue-131/
“1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair - Five Artists to Watch,” Quintessentially. 2020. https://www.quintessentially.com/noted/1-54-contemporary-african-art-fair-five-artists-to-watch
“Contemporary Artists Reflect on Life in America,” Vogue Magazine. 2020. https://www.vogue.com/article/black-artists-life-in-america
“Outstanding, Girl, You Knock Me Out: Ayana Evans and Tsedaye Makonnen Interviewed by Jessica Lanay,” BOMB Magazine. 2020. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/ayana-evans-and-tsedaye-makonnen-interviewed/
“What Does It Mean to Exhibit Black Excellence?,” Hyperallergic. 2020. https://hyperallergic.com/548933/what-does-it-mean-to-exhibit-black-excellence/
“Entanglements: 007 - Ayana Evans and Tsedaye Makonnen,” Dirt. https://www.dirtdmv.com/writing/2019/9/13/entanglements-007
“The People Issue 2019: Nineteen individuals who make life in D.C. more interesting tell us their stories,” Washington City Paper. 2019. https://washingtoncitypaper.atavist.com/the-people-issue-2019
“‘Absolutely Vile’ or ‘Powerful’? Christoph Buchel’s Migrant Boat is the Most Divisive Work at the Venice Biennale,” Artnet News. 2019. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/barca-nostra-1548946
“The Privilege of Proximity / Venice Biennale’s Sinking Ship,” The Seen: Chicago’s International Online Journal of Conemporary & Modern Art. 2019. http://theseenjournal.org/art-seen-international/the-privilege-of-proximity/
“Hyphen American,” curated by Tsedaye Makonnen and Rex Delafkaran. Gallery 102. Feb 2018. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/18eEyk4AuST33yd2LTRqaWP2FOGRkGUYJ
“How An Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony Sparked Conversation About Changes in Shaw,” The Kojo Nmadi Show. 2016. https://thekojonnamdishow.org/2016/10/05/ethiopian-coffee-ceremony-sparked-conversation-changes-shaw