ABOUT THE ARTIST

Mackenzie McDonald (b. 1998, Fairfax, Virginia), is an internationally exhibiting ceramic artist and art historian residing in Rome, Italy. She earned her Bachelor’s degree of fine arts at Alfred University with a focus in ceramics. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in art history at John Cabot University. She is writing her thesis on the late-fifteenth-century to early-sixteenth-century maiolica pavements of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

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The subversive power of decorative arts employs tongue-in-cheek commentary on consumerism and outdated societal notions of femininity. The glorification of banal objects like topiaries and plastic flamingos questions the role they play in our material lives. Landscapes of AstroTurf and glossy majolica evoke imposed ideals and standards of beauty. Using kitsch themes and camp aesthetics a dichotomy of perfection versus reality is presented. Terracotta is used as a vehicle for expression drawing from its rich history of an architectural, sculptural, and functional past.