Tia Madden (b.1999) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and curator based on unceded Dharug land in the Blue Mountains. Working primarily across drawing and installation, her practice is concerned with the porous boundary between drawing and writing, the poetics of illegibility, and the potential for abstract marks to behave communicatively when framed — or misread — as language. Part speculative-fiction and part riddle, her work combines traditions of abstraction with the materials, rules, and aesthetics of writing systems to create vessels for communication — even if they only speak in worlds outside our own — as a way of unsettling our assumptions of how, where, and when meaning dwells in human-made marks.
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In 2023, Madden was selected for a one-month residency in Cairo, Egypt, which was supported by a grant from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Since then, she has presented five solo exhibitions — Some Sort of Notation (Firstdraft, 2024), Correspondence from a Thin Place (Barometer Gallery, 2025), Misreading Misreading (The Floating Goose, Adelaide, 2025), The Uncode (Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, 2026) and Backjump (Bankstown Arts Centre, 2026) — and has exhibited in several group exhibitions including at Gosford Regional Gallery, Penrith Regional Gallery, Velvet Lobster, Upspace, Airspace, and the Blue Mountains Heritage Centre.
She is shortlisted for the 2026 Create NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), was the winner of the 2025 Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, the 2026 Blue Mountains Artist Award at the St Columba’s Art Prize, and the 2024 Kudos Emerging Artist Award; was Highly Commended in the 2023 Gosford Art Prize, the 2023 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and the 2023 Lloyd Rees Emerging Artist Awards, and has been featured as a finalist in numerous prizes across the country including the Wollongong Art Prize, the Jacaranda Acquisitive Prize for Drawing, the Gosford Emerging Prize, and the M16 Drawing Prize. She is currently completing a Master of Fine Arts by Research at the University of New South Wales Arts, Design & Architecture, and is the Assistant Curator at Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery in Western Sydney.
contact: tiamadden [at] me [dot] com
instagram: @tia_madden
current
Backjump —solo exhibition at Bankstown Arts Centre (18 April - 30 May)
artist talk: Saturday 30 May, 2pm
Master of Fine Arts by Research Candidate, University of New South Wales Arts, Design & Architecture
Assistant Curator at Penrith Regional Gallery
upcoming
Create NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging) – group exhibition at Artspace, Woolloomooloo NSW
education
2024 – 2026, Master of Fine Arts by Research, University of New South Wales Arts, Design & Architecture
2022, Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours, University of New South Wales Arts, Design & Architecture
2019 – 2021, Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales Arts, Design & Architecture
solo exhibitions
2026, Backjump, Bankstown Arts Centre, Bankstown NSW
2026, The Uncode, Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, Katoomba NSW
2025, Misreading Misreading, The Floating Goose, Adelaide SA
2025, Correspondence from a Thin Place, Barometer Gallery/Kudos, Paddington NSW
2024, Some Sort of Notation, Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo NSW
group exhibitions
2026, Distance between two orchids, Velvet Lobster, Surry Hills, NSW
2025, In The Morning There Were Birds Birds Birds, Upspace, Marrickville, NSW
2025, Gosford Emerging 2025, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford, NSW
2025, Palimpsest, 465 King Street, Newtown, NSW
2024, Torsion, Luna Studio, Newtown, NSW
2024, A Message to the Future, a Note from the Past, Airspace Projects, Marrickville, NSW
2024, Twelvefold, Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW
2023, Falak Gallery, Garden City, Cairo, Egypt
2023, Luft, Mounted ARI, Springwood, NSW
2023, Beyond the Dream, Comber St. Studios, Paddington, NSW
2023, Cast, Mounted ARI, Springwood, NSW
2023, In Flux: Liminal Longing, Comber St. Studios, Paddington, NSW
2022, The Annual, UNSW Galleries, Paddington, NSW
2022, Encompassment, ADSpace, Paddington, NSW
2022, The Other Art Fair, The Cutaway, Barangaroo, Sydney, NSW
2021 - 2022, Birdland, Blue Mountains Heritage Centre, Blackheath, NSW
2021, The Annual, UNSW Galleries, Paddington, NSW
2021, Pulse, ADSpace, Paddington, NSW
grants, awards & prizes
2026, Finalist - Create NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), Artspace, NSW
2026, Winner, Blue Mountains Artist - St Columba’s Art Prize, Springwood, NSW
2025, Finalist - Wollongong Art Prize, Wollongong NSW
2025, Finalist - Lloyd Rees Emerging Artist Awards, Gallery Lane Cove, NSW
2025, Finalist - M16 Drawing Prize, Griffith ACT
2025, Winner - Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, Paddington, NSW
2025, Finalist - Gosford Emerging 2025, Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW
2025, Finalist - St. Columba’s Art Prize, Springwood, NSW
2024, Winner - Kudos Emerging Artist Awards, Sydney, NSW
2024, Finalist - Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA), Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW
2024, Finalist - Kudos Emerging Writer Awards, Sydney, NSW
2024, Finalist - Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, Paddington, NSW
2024, Recipient - University Postgraduate Award & Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
2023, Recipient - Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant
2023, Highly Commended - Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW
2023, Finalist - M16 Drawing Prize, Griffith, ACT
2023, Highly Commended - Lloyd Rees Emerging Artist Awards, Gallery Lane Cove, NSW
2023, Highly Commended - Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Croydon, NSW
2022, Finalist - Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, Paddington, NSW
2022, Winner - The Other Art Fair New Futures, Sydney, NSW
2022, Finalist - Jenny Birt Painting Prize, Paddington, NSW
2021, Finalist - Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, Paddington, NSW
residencies & programs
2023, Out of the Circle Artist Residency, Cairo, Egypt
2023, Coppersmithing Short Course, Noqoush Academy of Art, Cairo, Egypt
2023, Ancher Points: Emerging Artists Intensive, Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW
bibliography
2026, Undiscovered and Underrated: Tia Madden, by Emma-Kate Wilson, Art Collector, Issue #116 Apr – Jun
2026, Interview with Hayley Zena Poynton, Insight Magazine
2026, Chalkis, Kymindis, parallel essay for The Uncode by Toyah Webb
2025, Tia Madden: Misreading Misreading, exhibition text by Nicole Clift
2024, Drawing Language, exhibition text by Nina Stromqvist
2024, Obscured by Darkness, Revealed by Light, exhibition text by Rose Dolenec Hannan
2023, Grantee Feature - Tia Madden, Ian Potter Cultural Trust
authored writing
2025, to the stars, curatorial essay for Shireen Taweel: Edge of the C, Penrith Regional Gallery
2024, a red disk swimming in a blue seain Framework issue no. 42
2024, Misreading Mis/reading in Framework issue no. 40
2023, A Disproportionate Subtitle in Cast
curatorial
2025, Jagath Dheerasekara: a river is a witness, Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW (Assistant Curator)
2025, Shireen Taweel:Edge of the C, Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW (Curator)
2025, Deadly Arts, Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW (Curator)
2025, Maggie & the OWLS: Light in Space, Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW (Co-curator)
2024, Spot the Difference, Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW (Assistant Curator)
2024, Marian Abboud & Vicki Van Hout: Magic Malfunction, Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW (Assistant Curator)
2023, Cast, Mounted ARI, Springwood, NSW
collections
Private collections throughout Australia
I acknowledge the Oryang and Mulgoa people of the Dharug nation, and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation; the traditional custodians of the earth I live and work on, and pay my respects to Elders of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Sovereignty has never been ceded, and this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal Land.