Jillian Mcdonald is a Canadian artist, currently living in New York. Originally from Winnipeg, she dreams of the snow-covered prairie.
Recent solo shows and projects include Moti Hasson Gallery in New York, The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Jack the Pelican Presents Gallery, ArtMoving Projects, and vertexList in Brooklyn, TPW (presented at The Drake Hotel) and YYZ in Toronto, Video Pool in Winnipeg, and Edge Media in Newfoundland. Her work was also shown recently at The Edith Russ Haus for Media Art in Oldenburg, Germany, The Whitney Museum's Artport, Year Zero One in Toronto, Manifestation d'Art Internationale de Québec, 404 International Festival of Electronic Art in Argentina, La Sala Naranja in Spain, The Sundance Online Film Festival in Utah, The Cleveland International Performance Art Festival, La Biennale de Montréal, ISEA 2004 in Estonia, and the Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie in France.
Mcdonald received grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, Soil New Media, Turbulence, The Gunk Foundation, NYSCA, The Experimental Television Center, Thirdplace.org, and Pace University. She lectures regularly in North America and Europe about her work and attended numerous residencies including The lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace Program and Harvestworks in New York, DAIMON, Sagamie, and La Chambre Blanche in Québec; CFAT in Halifax; Em-Media in Calgary, and The Western Front in Vancouver. She teaches art at Pace University, where she also curates and co-directs the Pace Digital Gallery.
She has happily discovered playing keyboard, backpacking, rock climbing, cycling, and running half marathons with Beckley Roberts. In 2007 she ran her first marathon in Atlanta, GA. Some of her favourite people are strangers.
~photos L - R: backpacking in The Adirondacks; 16-mile January run in Central Park; on top of Mt Marcy; reading with Dad, 1970s