Tia Coker

Tia Coker is a British Nigerian artist based in Essex whose practice centres on hair as sculpture, drawing, and cultural memory. Working with synthetic hair, wire, and beads, she transforms braiding traditions into three-dimensional forms that honour Black identity and heritage. Viewing the head as sacred space, Coker explores hair as a vessel of history, resilience, and political expression. Influenced by childhood memories of women styling hair within community spaces, her installations reflect protection, beauty, and belonging. Through ongoing projects such as Hair, she documents the evolution of Afro hair from childhood to adulthood, framing braids not simply as style, but as art and ancestral connection.