Visiting Artist: Jillian McDonald

Oct 3 - Oct 16, 2021

Jillian McDonald is a Canadian artist who lives in Brooklyn and dreams of the North. Through video, performance, and drawings she explores horror film, landscape, and imagined relationships with unlikely celebrities. Many of her recent artworks star zombies or haunted figures and places, and sometimes include large casts of horror fans.

Solo shows and projects include the Esker Foundation in Calgary, Lilith Performance Studio in Sweden, Air Circulation in New York, Centre Clark in Montréal, and Hallwalls in Buffalo. Her work was featured in group exhibitions at FiveMyles in Brooklyn, The Edith Russ Haus for Media Art in Germany, The International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Venezuela, The Sundance Film Festival in Utah, La Biennale de Montréal, and The New Media Gallery in British Columbia.

A CBC feature-length radio documentary profiles her work of the past 15 years, from Me and Billy Bob to Valley of the Deer. These works were reviewed in The New York Times, Border Crossings, and Canadian Art. Critical discussion appears in books like The Transatlantic Zombie by Sarah Juliet Lauro, Deconstructing Brad Pitt edited by Christopher Schaberg, and Stalking by Bran Nicol. McDonald has received grants and commissions from The New York Foundation for the Arts and The Canada Council for the Arts and attended residencies in Scotland, California, Sweden, Norway, New York, and Canada. Throughout 2020, she drew Arctic ice, plant roots, and holes in the earth – while dreaming of escape.

jillianmcdonald.net