Tsedaye Makonnen is an artist-curator, mother, birthworker of East African descent. Her studio practice primarily focuses on intersectional feminism, reproductive health and migration. Her intention is to create a spiritual network around the world that re-calibrates the energy towards something positive and life affirming. In 2019 Tsedaye was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow and staged two interventions at the Venice Biennale titled ‘When Drowning is the Best Option feat. Astral Sea I.’ In 2021 her light sculptures were acquired by the Smithsonian for their permanent collection and she published a book titled ‘Black Women as/and the Living Archive’ with WPA. Tsedaye is the recipient of a permanent large-scale public art commission for Providence, R.I. This Fall 2022, she performed at the Venice Biennale for Simone Leigh’s Loophole of Retreat, she is the inaugural Clark Art Institute’s Futures Fellow and is a Franklin Furnace Fund award recipient. In 2023, Tsedaye will be exhibiting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bard Graduate Center and The Walters Art Museum. She is currently represented by Addis Fine Art. She lives between DC and London with her partner and children.

Additionally, Makonnen has performed at Art Basel Miami, Art on the Vine (Martha’s Vineyard), Chale Wote Street Art Festival (Ghana), Prizm Art Fair, El Museo del Barrio, Fendika Cultural Center (Ethiopia), Festival International d’Art Performance (Martinique), Queens Museum, the Smithsonian’s & more. Her work has been featured in Artsy, NYTimes, Vogue, BOMB, Hyperallergic and more. Other exhibitions include Artspace New Haven, Mattress Factory, Photoville, NYU Tisch, Walters Art Museum, Washington Project for the Arts, CFHill gallery, National Gallery of Art, UNTITLED Art Fair, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Park Avenue Armory, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Momentary, Art Dubai & more.