A Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI native, Tyanna Buie was born the youngest of four siblings on the city’s south side. By the age of four, Buie and her siblings were placed in the foster care system where they were temporarily housed, moving from one home to another throughout Illinois and Wisconsin. Buie’s life and work have been highly influenced by this experience. Early on she was guided toward the art-making process as an outlet for self-expression and to cope with a challenging environment. In the midst of this chaos, Buie was free to create, and this gave her a sense of release and enjoyment to find her voice, her creative vision and a connection with the outside world. Through the memory of these childhood experiences aided by a few family photos from her aunt, Buie has the ability to reclaim and rewrite her own past in her work; to not just focus on the hardships, but to highlight the celebrations.

Buie believes in maintaining a connection to the community around her by hosting printmaking workshops and demonstrations and participating in Healthy Neighborhood Initiatives through the production of public art created for underserved neighborhoods and communities in Milwaukee, and Madison, WI.

Tyanna Buie received a BA from Western Illinois University, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been a visiting artist lecturer in Tennessee, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Arizona while continuing to exhibit her works in numerous juried, group and solo exhibitions throughout the country. In 2012, Buie received an emerging artist Mary L. Nohl Fellowship and is the recipient of the 2015 Love of Humanity Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and the prestigious 2015 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant. Tyanna Buie is currently living in Detroit, MI where she is Assistant Professor/Section Chair of Printmaking at the College for Creative Studies. She is a 2019 Kresge Fellow in Visual Arts.