gallery space

Annie MacDonell

From November 13, 2025 to January 17, 2026
Opening on November 13

This first major solo exhibition in Montreal will bring together a selection of works by Toronto artist Annie MacDonell, including the premiere of a new film, created with in collaboration with Paris-based artist Maïder Fortuné. With the formal lucidity proper to the artist, the photographic and film works propose alternative, if not radical, systems for seeing, learning, and being. Underwritten by feminist thinking and its politicization of the everyday, the many optical subversions and historical revisitations employed configure new plausibilities for collective and relational world-building.

Annie MacDonell is a visual artist and filmmaker. Her formal training in photography and the image continues to play a central role in her projects, which also employ installation, film, sculpture, writing, and performance. She received a BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University's School of Image Arts in 2000, followed by graduate studies at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, in France. Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at the Audain Gallery SFU, Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, and the Mackenzie Art Gallery. She has participated in group shows at The Art Museum of the University of Toronto, Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver and Mackenzie Art Gallery. Recent performances have been presented at Nuit Blanche Toronto, le Centre Pompidou and the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Photography Award. Also in 2020, she and Maïder Fortuné won the Tiger Short Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, for their film Communicating Vessels.

Annie MacDonell is an Associate Professor at TMU’s School of Image Arts. She is a founding member of Emilia Amalia, a feminist research and writing group.

Dazibao thanks the artist for her generous collaboration as well as its advisory committee for their support.

Dazibao receives financial support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications and the Ville de Montréal.

Dazibao acknowledges that it is located on the unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá: ka Nation and that Tiohtiá:ke / Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations, and today, is home to a diverse population of Indigenous as well as other peoples. Guided by ethics of respect, listening, and awareness, Dazibao commits to a continued reflection regarding the deep-rooted and systemic challenges tied to accessibility and inclusivity in the arts and beyond, and endeavors to apply such reflections to all aspects of its activities and governance.