BIOGRAPHY

Tramaine de Senna (b. San Francisco) is an artist practicing between Antwerp (BE) and California, and was named after Lady Tramaine Hawkins, a gospel singer of the San Francisco Bay Area first known for her vocals in the 1969 version of Edwin Hawkins Singers Choir’s single, “Oh Happy Day."

In 2015, Tramaine became a laureate of the HISK (Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten) in Ghent (BE); in 2013, de Senna earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Sint Joost Academy for Art and Design (Academie voor Kunst en Vormgeving) in Breda and ‘s-Hertogenbosch (NL); and in 2004, graduated with High Honors with two simultaneous Bachelor of Art degrees in Architecture and in Art Practice from the University of California at Berkeley.

De Senna’s ever-evolving body of work bears witness to the artist’s intense relationship with materials, surfaces, and making, with interests in issues such as the “migration of forms,” pop and material culture, internalized violence, exuberance, and the enduring ambiguous presence - “ghosts” - of histories. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, which includes an artwork for the Flemish Parliament's 25/50th year anniversary; a permanently installed bronze statue "Figure of Color," (an initiative of Kunst in de Stad - Middelheimmuseum) in Antwerp's Munthof Park, BE; and her solo exhibition, "MASTERBLASTER," for the IN SITU program at M HKA - Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen), BE. 

Recent exhibitions include two commissioned works for "An Exhibition of Posters" at the fka Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, NL, which ran for one year; a solo at Mélange in Cologne, DE (2020); “New Movement,” Boston, US (2019); “CO/LAB 4,” Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, California, US (2019); “Supernatural,” Pulsar, Antwerp, BE (2019); “Universal Folklore,” Permekemuseum, Jabbeke, BE (2018); “Traumdepot: Plastik/ Kunstoff,” Bern, CH (2017); “Small Works,” Hammerfriar, Healdsburg, California, US (2017); “Sixth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art,” Moscow, RU (2015); and “Tramaine de Senna,” Art Center Hugo Voeten, Herentals, BE (2015). 

Tramaine's art belongs in the permanent collections of the Flemish Parliament, the Middelheimmuseum/ Kunst in de Stad (Antwerp, BE); M HKA- Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp/ The Flemish Community; Mu.ZEE - Kunstmuseum aan Zee (Ostend), as well as in several private collections in Berlin, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the US.