Mallory Donen is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Vancouver, exploring processes rooted in traditional craft passed down by generations of women in her family. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of the Fraser Valley, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba. Within her practice, she challenges notions of labour, productivity, and the value of art in relation to craft and women’s work.
In 2019, she was an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center. In 2020, she received an Honorable mention in the virtual exhibition Threaded II, Envision Art Show. She is a 2021 recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts, Research and Creation Grant.
Recent exhibitions include: Art on Demand 4.4, the Reach Gallery & Museum, I Come From a Long Line of Machines, Ranger Station Art Gallery, Seeking the Periphery, Paul H. Cocker Gallery, Uncompressed, Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery.
Artist Website: mallorydonen.com
Artist Instagram: instagram.com/mallorydonen
Presentation Description
Mallory Donen will present works from the past several years which investigate notions of labour, productivity, and the value of art in relation to craft and women’s work. Instead of becoming reliant on computers and other advanced technologies that are accelerating the speeds of production and consumption alike, she chooses to look back to centuries-old practices that have been passed down through generations of women. She explores the parallel between repetitive processes and computer programming by taking on the role of a machine.
By embracing time-consuming processes such as hand-stitching, she emphasizes the importance and value of women’s labour. As a female artist, her labour is feminized and inherently connected to women’s domestic work. She challenges expectations of traditional craft by introducing conceptual layers and experimentation with new media. Throughout her artist talk, she will bring awareness to the value of feminine art forms and the connection between craft and fine art.