With a diverse artistic practice that includes performance, photography, video, painting, and sculpture, Jemila MacEwan explores ideas of transformation, displacement, and culture. Often employing images of ghosts, cocoons, nests, volcanoes, glaciers, and plants, she highlights physical transformations found in nature to address larger states of change, of moving from one state to another, and that of becoming, more broadly. From performances in Oaxaca, Mexico, Icelandic landscape paintings, to wood-fired ceramic sculptures of volcanoes, her work engages the material itself and with its generative properties to reflect on personal, cultural and environmental encounters. Born in Scotland, Jemila MacEwan immigrated to Australia as a child, where her upbringing intertwined scientific, mythological and spiritual ways of learning from the land. She continues to draw connections between people and place; erosion and evolution; an ongoing elemental flux and immense transformation.
Jemila MacEwan (b. 1985) earned her MFA from University of Melbourne, Australia and moved to New York soon after. MacEwan’s work has been exhibited widely in the US including in solo shows at The Australian Consulate, NY (2017), Pioneer Works, NY (2017), the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY (2014) and others. She has also received international attention and has been generously supported by the Australian Council of the Arts (2015). She has received fellowships and residencies around the world, including Salem Art Works (2016/2017) and Flux Factory (2015). She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
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EDUCATION:
2011 - Masters of Contemporary Arts, VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, The University of Melbourne, Australia
2004 - Bachelor of Fine Art, VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, The University of Melbourne, Australia – Production Design
EXHIBITIONS:
2018
Clown Therapy. Visual dramaterge for solo dance by Corie Ollinghouse for LMCC River to River, NYC, USA (forthcoming)
2017
Topographies: Jemila MacEwan and Karin Waskiewicz, Victori + Mo, New York City, NY -curated by Alixandra Hornyan for AH Arts
Boundary Event at The Australian Consulate General, NYC - solo exhibition
It Holds Us All at Pioneer Works, NYC - solo exhibition
Clown Therapy. Visual dramaterge for development performance by Corie Ollinghouse at LMCC, NYC, USA
Bone Women, visual concept for solo dance by Leslie Parker, VA, USA
Smouldering at Museum Blue, St Louis, MO, USA
Against Competition/Towards Mutual Aid at Flux Factory, NYC, USA
2016
Boundary Event at C3 Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia - solo exhibition
Faux Studio, Performance and Exhibition at C3 Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia.
Salem Art Works Session 1 Exhibition, Salem, NY, USA
2015
Casa, Performance at Arquetopia, Oaxaca, Mexico - solo exhibition
Mi Casita, Performance at Arquetopia, Oaxaca, Mexico - solo exhibition
Daze of Our Lives, TwoSeven, NYC, USA
Slip, Performance, Flux Factory, Queens, NY - solo exhibition
Shrine for Headless Birds (permanent installation) at Paul Artspace, MO, USA - solo exhibition
The Gertrude St Projection Festival, Melbourne, Australia
Strobe Network at Flux Factory, NYC, USA
2014
Birth of the Ghost at Governors Island Art Fair 2014, NYC, USA - solo exhibition
Instinct 6YL Magazine exhibition and launch, Melbourne, Australia
Where a Stone Once Stood at Robert Blackburn 20|20, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC, USA - solo exhibition.
2013
Maiden Grass Voyage, Performance, Manhattan, NY, USA - solo exhibition
Stitching Time: Phenokistoscope at Craft (formerly Craft Victoria), Melbourne, Australia
Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship Exhibition at Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2012
Agency Project at Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia - solo exhibition
Bewildered at BUS Projects, Donkey Wheel House, Melbourne, Australia - solo exhibition
Cactus at Alice Euphemia, Melbourne, Australia - solo exhibition
VCA Masters Exhibition at Victorian College of the Art, Melbourne, Australia
Place of Assembly at Melbourne International Arts Festival, School House Studios, Melbourne, Australia
Alliance Française Award Exhibition at Alliance Française Melbourne, Australia
The Art of Collecting at George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Put Out The Sun: The Bogeyman at C3 Contemporary,, Melbourne, Australia
Launch 12 at Brunswick Arts, Melbourne, Australia
2011
Boo Hoo at C3 Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia - solo exhibition
VCA Graduate Exhibition at Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
2010
Telling Tales at Craft Victoria and Craft Cubed Festival, Melbourne, Australia
Drawing No.1 at C3 Contemporary, and Craft Cubed Festival, Melbourne, Australia
2009
I’ll be home one day at Brunswick St Gallery, Melbourne, Australia - solo exhibition
ACHIEVEMENTS:
2017
Ceramic Artist Residency at Salem Art Works, NY, USA
2016
Australian Consulate-General/Monash Room exhibition award
Fellowship at Salem Art Works, Salem, NY, USA
2015
Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant
Dame Joan Sutherland Fund
Australia Council for the Arts: Artstart
Residency at Arquetopia, Oaxaca, Mexico
The Gertrude St Projection Festival, Honorable Mention
Mentorship with Janine Antoni, NYC, USA
Residency at Flux Factory, NYC, USA
Residency at Paul Artspace, St Louis, USA
2014
Artist Summer Institute (Creative Capital & LMCC), NYC, USA
2013
Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship (shortlisted)
Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards 2013, Highly Commended
2012
Graduate Women of Victoria Scholarship
Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards 2012, Highly Commended
2011
Acacia Award, Art prize
Alchera Award, Art prize
Alliance Française Award, for outstanding graduate work
George Hicks Award, for outstanding graduate work
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
2016
The Chasm Journal. “It Holds Us All: In Conversations with Jemila MacEwan.” Chasm Journal, online.
