Tiemar Tegene, (Ethiopian, b. 1994) Lives and works in Addis Ababa

Tiemar Tegene’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 description 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 received a BFA in Printmaking from the Allé School of Fine Arts & Design in Addis Ababa.

Solo and dual exhibitions include We Belong to Time, Circle Art Gallery (2025), Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Whose the Darkest of them All? , AKINCI Gallery in Amsterdam (2025) , Questioned and Assured Existence, Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Center in Addis Ababa (2025), Memories from that Night, Gallery Dotwalk in Delhi NCR, (2024), Shertan Weha, Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi (2023).

Group exhibitions include Lets Agree to Disagree Christine X Art Gallery, Malta (2023); Gathering at Dawn Mitochondria Gallery, Houston (2024); the Lithuanian National Museum of Art (2022); and James Fuentes Art Gallery, New York (2022). Tegene has exhibited in various international art fairs such as 1-54 Contemporary Art Fair London (2023 & 2025), Africa Basel (2025), Cape Town Art Fair (2024) and Art Rotterdam (2025).

Tegene’s work is in various collections, including the Foundation Gandur pour l’Art in Geneva, the IIZIKO National Gallery South Africa, Africa First Collection, Kamita Art Collection, Schwartzman and Associates Collection and The African Arts Trust Collection.

Agnes Waruguru (Kenyan, b. 1994) Lives and works in Nairobi

Agnes Waruguru works with materials tied to the home and daily routines, weaving slow, meditative processes with quick, intuitive gestures. Her practice moves fluidly between the formal and the abstract, often referencing women’s practices, cultural identifiers, and personal identity politics to explore memory, belonging, and shifting notions of home as she moves between Kenya and her adopted environments. These lived experiences give rise to new memoryscapes and emotionscapes that encourage slow looking, reflection, and quiet speculation.

In her recent works, Waruguru approaches water as messenger, healer, and archive. Her large-scale installations and works on paper become instruments for rememory, cleansing, and contemplation. The process begins with a controlled pouring of salt and water to prime the surface for natural pigments, inks, acrylics, and watercolour. Layers of gentle washes and concentrated beads of pigment then pool, blend, and accumulate to form vast, illusory landscapes. Experienced at scale, these environments envelop the viewer and create a bodily, affective encounter; one that slows perception, alters mood, and opens a space for listening, waiting, and attentive presence

Waruguru received a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, USA. Her work has been exhibited in America, the Ivory Coast, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and Kenya.

Solo exhibitions include From What We Are, Casa Masaccio, Italy (2026); What the Water Left Behind, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi (2024); Small Things to Consider, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi (2020).

Dual and group exhibitions include The Roundness of Loss, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, (2025): Rememory, Garage Rotterdam, Netherlands (2025); Past Is Just the Prologue, Lis10 Gallery, Hong Kong (2025).

Residencies include the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2024), Saba Residency, Lamu (2019) and Artspace Residency in Sydney (2018).

Waruguru participated in the inaugural edition of the Stellenbosch Triennale, South Africa (2020), the 22nd Biennial Sesc–Videobrasil in Sao Paulo (2023) and the 60th Biennale di Venezia (2024).

In 2022 she was nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prize and was featured in The Artsy Vanguard: Young Artists to Watch in 2024.

Her work is included in the Ford Foundation Collection, The African Arts Trust Collection, the Africa First Collection, the ARAK Collection, the Enasoit Collection, the Shulting Art Collection, and Collection INELCOM in Madrid.

She has un upcoming solo exhibition at the Sanatorium Gallery in Istanbul.

Expo Chicago 9 - 12 Apr 2026 with Tiemar Tegene and Agnes Waruguru

Expo Chicago
9 - 12 Apr 2026
with Tiemar Tegene and Agnes Waruguru