Jennifer T. Macdonald is an American conceptual artist whose work explores the artifices and tropes used in the construction of language and meaning at the intersection of law, gender identity, sexual orientation and desire. Macdonald, together with partner Hillary Leone, worked under the collaborative name of Leone and Macdonald for slightly over a decade in the 1990s. Within the group of self-identified LGBT artists working in the American art scene, a number of gay male collaborative teams had established renown during this period, but Leone & Macdonald were arguably the first American lesbian art duo to do likewise. Known for their visually seductive but often politically pointed pieces, Leone & Macdonald were also among the first women to address AIDS directly in their work.

Early life and career

Born in New York City, Jennifer Macdonald is the daughter of the American poet Cynthia Macdonald. Macdonald attended

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

and graduated from

The School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Sil ...

with honors before starting to collaborate with Leone in the late 1980s. Macdonald was an adjunct professor at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

and a visiting professor at universities such as

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

. Leone & Macdonald are two-time National Endowments for the Arts grant recipients, three-time Art Matters Foundation Fellowship recipients, Penny McCall Foundation Grant and

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

Grant recipients.

Exhibitions (selection)

* 1999

Henry Art Gallery The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is a contemporary art museum located on the campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the Un ...

, Faye G. Allen Center for the Visual Arts, Seattle (solo retrospective) * 1998

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, New York * 1998

The Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore (Pittsburgh), North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent co ...

, Pittsburgh * 1998 Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston * 1997 The Australian Center for Photography, Sydney, Australia (solo) * 1997 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco (solo) * 1997

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

Gallery, Melbourne * 1997

, New York * 1996 Arthouse Multimedia Centre for the Arts, Dublin, Ireland (solo) * 1996 Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland (solo) * 1996 David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University * 1995 Fawbush Gallery, New York (solo) * 1994

* 1995 Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle * 1994

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, Harvard University, Cambridge * 1994 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea (portfolio) * 1994 Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York * 1993

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

* 1993 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea * 1993 Museo Statale d'Arte Medioevale e Moderna, Arezzo, Italy * 1993

Makuhari Messe is a convention center in Chiba (city), Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, located just outside of Tokyo. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, it is accessible by Transportation in Greater Tokyo#Railway and subway, Tokyo's commuter rail system. ''Makuha ...

, Tokyo * 1993 The Drawing Center, New York * 1993

Aspen Art Museum Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Aspen, Colorado, United States. AAM exhibitions include drawings, paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations and electronic media. Building ...

, Aspen * 1992

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum a ...

* 1991

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution at 2201 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, United States. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

* 1991 Pence Gallery, Los Angeles * 1991 La Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela * 1991

Art in General Art in General was a Non-profit organization, non-profit contemporary art exhibition space known for its vibrant and ground-breaking projects as a formidable and longstanding New York City alternative space, focused on giving meaningful resource ...

, New York * 1991

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

, Denver * 1989 Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York * 1988

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Located in Hollywood, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) is a nonprofit exhibition space and archive of the visual arts for the city of Los Angeles, California, United States, currently under the leadership of Sarah Russin. History In ...

(LACE)

Written works

* Waldrop, R. & Macdonald, J. (1990). ''Peculiar Motions''. Berkeley: Kelsey St. Press. .Perloff, M. (1991) ''Sulfur'', vol. 29, pp. 216–221. * Macdonald, J. & Leone, H. (1996). ''Passing''. Miami: Miami-Dade Community College. ASIN: B003ZIOQZY * Macdonald, J. & Leone, H. (1995). ''Questions of Feminism''. October 71, Published by the MIT Press.

Notes

References

. (1993). ''1993 Biennal Exhibition''. New York, Abrams. * Plimpton, G. (1994).
Leone & Macdonald d.b.: An Interview with Art Portfolio
'. ''Paris Review'', Vol. 36, Issue 132, pp. 133–161 * Fredericksen, E. (1999
Two of a kind
''The Stranger'', July 15. * Lord, C. & Meyer, R. (2013).
Art & Queer Culture
'. New York: Phaidon. * Hammond, H. (2000). ''Lesbian Art in America''. New York: Rizzo International Publications. * Spice, N. (1995). ''The Bare Fork. Leone & Macdonald''. Art+Text, vol. 51, pp. 50–55. * Enright, R. (1996). ''Visual Pleasures''. Border Crossings, Vol. 15, Issue 3, p7. * Turner, E. (1996) What's in a look? ''Miami Herald'', February 10. * Turner, E. (1996) Splash, Color, and Rhythm. ''ARTnews'', January. * Wolfsenberger, B. (1994) Women, Bodies, and Art, ''Boston Phoenix'', April 22. * Lovett, M. (1996). Leone & Macdonald, ''CIRCA Art Magazine'', Vol. 78. * Fuchs, B. (2003)
Passing for Spain: Cervantes And the Fictions of Identity
Illinois: University of Illinois. Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Jennifer American conceptual artists American women conceptual artists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Artists from New York City School of Visual Arts alumni 21st-century American women artists American lesbian artists