Tiana Kader (she/they), born in France in 1997, is a French-Malagasy visual artist based in Alexandria, Egypt since 2021.
Tiana likes to explore and experiment, with a practice that can be defined as “hoarding”- originally centered on drawing, then opening to different forms: sculpture, printing, textile, puppetry, book-making, performance… and a process rooted in iteration, mistake-making and fabricating in general. Juggling with their attachment to the craft and their refusal of aesthetism, they are progressively transforming an image-focused practice into developing both process (building) and dialogue (collective discourse); through community-based works, poetico-curatorial writings, out-of-the-institution alternative art education, and series of projects inscribing themselves in a continuum of works-in-process.
Navigating between the institution, the home, and the (women’s) body, their work questions the absurd feeling of necessity in archiving, the oblivion and the idleness, the public and the private, and most importantly searches for the in-betweens that can be collectively inhabited.
They’re convinced that using unseriousness as a language and informality (lightheartedness or clownery) as a method is becoming a critical necessity towards institutional fatigue, ecological urgency, and cultural precarity. Making less, cheaper, easier and together is their political stance towards accessibility and inclusivity. Their aim is to imagine an alternative art economy that is neither extractive nor elitist, and that refuses authority, severity, and monumental permanence - privileging process over resolution and allowing their works to remain unfinished or collectively transformed.
They studied filmmaking then visual arts in university between France, Canada, and Egypt. In 2022, Tiana graduated with a master’s degree in research and creation in Contemporary Art from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and now works as an illustrator, art director and cultural practitioner. Since 2019, they have presented their works in several group exhibitions, festivals, and public screenings in France and abroad, and opened their first solo shows early 2025 in Alexandria.
Exhibitions & Screenings
upcoming
Bouts de carnet
Solo show
2025
Everything Must Disappear - Sculptures, paintings, prints, poetry
Solo show - Kulturgarage (Goethe in Alexandria)
elbeit beitak - installation, performance
Presented during the first edition of Alexandria Contemporary Art Days - Institut Français d’Égypte à Alexandrie & Shelter Art Space
The door in the back of the kitchen - a performed conversation
Presented during the first edition of Alexandria Contemporary Art Days - Shelter Art Space
HAVEN - a collaboration with Frantisek Felix
Collective space design, invitation, participatory experience - Shelter Art Space (Alexandria)
Questioning the entomological and loverly urge to put butterflies in boxes - Paintings, embroidery, prints, sculpture
Solo show & Performance - German Seafarer’s House (Alexandria)
My village is full of freaks / Crackpot [endearing] - paintings
Collective exhibition Home Grown - Institut Français d’Égypte à Alexandrie
Les Bercés - Linocut
Collective exhibition Hypatia Art Week - Al Horreya (Alexandria)
My dear dear, - Comic, drawing
Collective exhibition in Comixandria Festival vol. 3 - Jesuits Cultural Center (Alexandria)
Cairoprints 6 - digital illustrations
Collective exhibition - Cairopolitan (Cairo)
Giza Travel Posters - digital illustrations
Collective exhibition - Giza Pyramids Complex
2024
Madinet El-Nafoura - Drawings, poetry, installation
Collective exhibition - Wekalet Behna (Alexandria)
Artifacts from my backpack’s bottom - Ceramics, drawings, poetry
Intervention during Abulkassem Salama’s open studio - Kulturgarage (Goethe in Alexandria)
The Analog dreamer - Comic, drawing
Collective exhibition in Comixandria Festival vol. 2 - Jesuits Cultural Center (Alexandria)
Cairoprints 5 - digital illustrations
Collective exhibition - Cairopolitan (Cairo)
2023
Under the dust - Comic, drawing
Collective exhibition in Comixandria Festival vol. 1 - Museum of Fine Arts (Alexandria)
Les Bercés - Linocut
Collective exhibition Frenzied - Bibliotek Gallery (Sheikh Zayed)
Collective exhibition SOS - Darb1718 (Cairo)
Cairoprints 4 - digital illustrations
Collective exhibition - Cairopolitan (Cairo)
2022
Les Bercés - Linocut
Collective exhibition Alexandria Today - 6BabSharq (Alexandria)
Du plaisir de se tourner les pouces - Animated short-film
Public screenings in Cinéma Christine21 in 2021 and at Sorbonne Short Film Festival in 2021 and 2022 (Paris)
2021
The Coat Rack - Installation, photographs, textile
Collective exhibition (In)errance 2 - Sorbonne (Paris)
Paris, banlieues vues du ciel - Illustration
Collective exhibition Cycle à vol d’oiseau - Parc de la Brèche (Créteil)
Postcards from my mind - Ink drawings
Collective exhibition Fréquence - L’Impasse (Paris)
Residencies & Prizes
2025
Artistic residency in B’sarya for Arts, 2 months of preparation of elbeit beitak, for the first edition of Alexandria Contemporary Art Days
Artistic residency in Shelter Art Space, 2 months in collaboration with Czech artist Frantisek Felix - space design, invitation, intervention within his project Haven
Artistic residency in Goethe Institut’s Kulturgarage, 6 weeks with the interdisciplinary project Everything Must Disappear
2024
Fellowship program in Wekalet Behna, 5 months - with the interdisciplinary project Madinet El Nafoura
2021
Jury’s Favorite Award for Du plaisir de se tourner les pouces in the Sorbonne Short Film Festival (Paris)
2019
Poetry Award for Charlotte at the Inter-University Comics Contest (Montreal)