Bio
K. MacNeil is a genderqueer American-Canadian artist, educator, writer, and curator currently residing in Tkaronto (Toronto).
MacNeil’s work has exhibited internationally in France, China, Canada, and throughout numerous institutions across the US including the Print Center New York, the Western New York Book Arts Center, and Print Austin’s The Contemporary Print. Their work has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Mark Diamond Research Fund (SUNY Buffalo), and the South Carolina Arts Commission. MacNeil was recently the Hexagon Fellow at Open Studio (Toronto, ON) and they have completed residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Tsinghua University (Beijing, China).
MacNeil holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University at Buffalo and a BA in Studio Art from the College of Charleston. They teach at the University of Toronto and work as the College Printer at Massey College.
Artist statement
Though my practice is historically rooted in traditional printmaking, I am continually interested and informed by materials and processes that reflect an interdisciplinary practice, and as such, my work finds form in print media, video, animation, installation, and performance.
My practice explores experiences of trauma, grief, and mental distress and the way these topics are variously obscured in Western culture. I draw from lifelong diagnoses of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic illness, and personal experiences navigating medical, familial, and cultural support systems prevalent in Western society. Through often autobiographical visuals, text, and performance, I create art as a means to situate myself against the mainstream, capitalist narratives of mental health. This work speaks to the embodied effects of colonial institutions (such as in-patient hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and religion) and social stigmas surrounding survivorship.
My work implores the viewer to encounter the material and embodied realities of these lived experiences, as well as the harm caused by navigating health and social systems from this subject position. The material of the work and the physical marks of artistic and emotional labor create a space for such encounters. Performative mark-making is deeply entrenched in my work, especially in traditional print-based forms, where I personally find meaning and signification behind the technical process.
Collectively, my work confronts mental illness stigmas, the delicate nature of traumatic memory, and the messiness of healing.