Tiemar Tegene’s work is anchored in her training as a printmaker, expanding etching processes into mono-printing through spontaenous experiments, most often using household items and their textures. Rather than producing numbered editions struck from the same plate, each work falls outside of the fixed description of a print, as Tegene finds new ways to press the texture of an image by applying ink or paint onto the page or canvas. Additions of colored pencils forge repeating icons and patterns, becoming increasingly abstracted while adding layers of personal narratives.
Channeling 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, overhead 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.