Jess MacNeil explores the way we perceive and interpret the external world. Spaces such as town squares, the steps of public buildings or a river serve as the subjects for an exploration of the transitory nature of human presence. Breaking down our experiences of these places into fragmentary memories that rely as much on personal interpretation as they do on a collective understanding, MacNeil’s videos are a different take on the nature of memory and its representation.
Opera House Steps March and Opera House Steps December [both 2006] recorded the passage of tourists and pedestrians on the steps leading to the main entrance of the Sydney Opera House. Using video post production techniques to remove the people and leave only their shadows and the concrete steps upon which they fell, MacNeil created a stunning formalist composition that suggested a timeless observation of inhuman phenomenon. The Shape of Between [2006] was shot on location on the Ganges River at Varanasi in India. Screened as a video loop, the 100 seconds of footage is stretched to 13 minutes, subtly tweaked and altered so that the viewer’s attention is drawn to different boats as they drift into new configurations. What at first appears straight forward becomes more complex as it is increasingly difficult to tell what editorial intervention – if any – was made.
The two-screen works Wake (Windermere) and Wake (Coniston Water) [both 2007] are close-ups of the wake left by a boat. Both videos play on the natural urge to interpret abstract forms while acknowledging the pleasure of simply looking at water and sunlight as intense fields of visual experience. The Thaw [2007] is a single looped shot of ice and melt water in a street in Paris. The video subtly and evocatively captures the impressionistic reflections of a building and the disruption of the image by a passing vehicle.
Jess MacNeil is represented by Gallery Barry Keldoulis.
Solo Exhibitions
2011
On Reflection, The Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore
First. One. Thing. Then. Another. Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
2009
The Floating Edge, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
2007
The Thaw, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
2006
The Shape of Between, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
The Shape of Between, Elastic Residence, London
2005
Plant, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
2004
The Rate of Forgetting, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
2003
Tenuous Ground, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
Skin, Rocketart, Newcastle
2002
Souvenir, Gallery Wren, Surry Hills, Sydney
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 -2012
Selectively Revealed, curated by Sarah Bond and Clare Needham, Asialink touring exhibition, Aram Art Gallery, Seoul, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Chulalongkorn University Art Space, Bangkok
2011
Where there is water, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Australia
Vitrine, curated by Joao Laia, Brighton White Night, Brighton, UK
gbk @ ART HK 2011, Hong Kong
Pulsed, ASC Gallery, London
Drawn from Life: Green Cardamom, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Lake District, UK
VideoRow, The Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles, California
New Age: New Media, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, Yuanboyuan Jinan International Art Exhibition Centre, Art Hangzhou Expo, Sichuan Fine Art Academy Art Gallery, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Songzhuang Art Museum (Beijing International New Media Art Exhibition) (touring exhibition)
gbk @ Art Stage Singapore, Singapore
2010
gbk @ Melbourne Art Fair
Dreamworlds, Sanlitun Village, Beijing
Australia Pavilion, Expo 2010 Shanghai, China
Jess MacNeil and Huseyin Sami: Fauvette Loueiro Memorial Artists Travel Scholarship Survey Exhibition, Sydney College of the Arts Gallery, Sydney
Kaldor Public Arts Projects ‘Move: The Exhibition, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
gbk @ ART HK 10, Hong Kong
Athens Video Art Festival, Athens
2009
gbk @ Photo Taipei, Taipei
On the Border of Cinema and Painting: REDUX, Uplink, Tokyo
gbk @ Hong Kong Art Fair
Rising Tide: Film and video works from the MCA Collection, Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, America and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan
2008
NEW: selected recent acquisitions 2007-2008, The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
gbk @ Melbourne Art Fair
Drawn from Life: Drawing Space, Green Cardamom, London
gbk @ Hong Kong Art Fair
Shadowplay, Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery, New South Wales
Graduation Exhibition, The Slade School, London
Notations, Slade Research Centre, London
2007
Loop: New Australian Video Art, Hamilton Art Gallery, Warrnambool Art Gallery, Aarat Gallery, Horsham Regional Art
Gallery, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Bedigo Art Gallery, Victoria, touring until 2009
2007: The Year in Art, S.H. Errvin Gallery, Sydney
Freedman Foundation Awards, COFASpace, College of Fine Arts, Sydney
New Acquisitions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
CCB Supper Club, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2006
Strange Times, The Art Organisation's Meta-Conceptual International Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travelling Scholarship, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, Artspace, Sydney
Flaming Youth, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange
Art and Football at the German Bundestag, Berlin, Germany
gbk @ Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Official FIFA World Cup Art Posters, Multiple Box, Sydney
Official FIFA World Cup Art Posters, Goethe Institute, Sydney
Material Witness: Representations of Space, Contemporary Art Centre South Australia, Project Space, Adelaide
2005
Translation, Gallery 101, Melbourne
Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, Artspace, Sydney
Freedman Foundation Awards, Sir Herman Black Gallery, Sydney
International Painting on Paper, Gallery Barry Keldoulis
Emerging Artists, Span Galleries, Melbourne
2004
Two for One Two, MOP, Sydney
The Year in Art, S.H Ervin Gallery, Observatory Hill, Sydney
Postgraduate Degree Show, Sydney College of the Arts
Perception, Conception, Deception, Soapbox Gallery, Brisbane
Frank Saxby Bequest Exhibition, Manning Regional Gallery
2003
The Year in Art, S.H Ervin Gallery, Observatory Hill, Sydney
Two for One, MOP, Sydney
Avoiding the Eye Area, MOP, Sydney
Julie Fragar, Jessica MacNeil, Shaan Syed, Grunt, Vancouver
2002
Surveillance, Firstdraft, Sydney
Deskjob, Mori, Sydney
Slacking Off, Imperial Slacks, Sydney
2001
Artcastle, The Castle, Dover Heights, Sydney
Space, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
2000
Magic Bullet Theory, Imperial Slacks, Sydney
1999
Post No Bills, Newspace, Sydney
Mathys Gerber, CBD Gallery, Sydney
The Degree Show, Sydney College of the Arts
- Merewether, Charles. “Media-Based Exhibitions”, Glossary, Institute of Contemporary Arts, LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore, 2011, pp. 8 – 11
- Greco, Nell. “First. One. Thing. Then. Another., Jess MacNeil”, Two Thousand, http://www.twothousand.com.au/look/first-one-thing-then-another-jess-macneil/ 16 February 2011
- Needham, Clare. Selectively Revealed, ex. cat, Asialink and Experimenta Media Arts, 2011
- Okamura, Keiko, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2009, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan, 2009
- Clement, Tracey. “Rising Tide”, Australian Art Collector, issue 49, July – September 2009, pp. 134 - 139
- 2008 Benjamin, Andrew, Traces of Anonymity, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, 2008
- Flynn, Paul, Jess MacNeil, Artist Profile, Issue 3, 2008
- McDonald, Patrick, Spring in their Step, The Advertiser, 19 April, 2008
- 2007 Brand, Sally, keep going, exhibition catalogue, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, 2007.
- Kent, Rachel, New Acquisitions 2007: a collection in focus, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007.
- Low, Lenny Ann, ‘Absence Makes the Artist Ponder’, The Arts Guide, Sydney Morning Herald, October 2007, p. 9
- Morrow, Christine, Primavera 07 Exhibition by Young Australian Artists, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007
- Taylor, Alex, ‘What Do You Call Good Video Art’, Loop: New Australian Video Art, foreword by Daniel McOwen, National Exhibitions Touring Support, 2007
- MCA Collections: New Acquisitions 2007, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007
- 2006 Boyce, Elizabeth, ‘Translation’, Un Magazine, Issue 7, Autumn 2006
- Clifton, Catherine, ‘Star Quality’, Adelaide Matters, Issue 69, March 2006
- Lewis, Claire, ‘The Shape of Between’, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, 2006
- McCormick, Alice, ‘So Football and So Not’, Australian Art Market Report, Issue 20, Winter 2006
- Reid, Chris, ‘Material Witness: Representations of Space’, Australian Art Collector, Issue 35, January – March 2006
- Woodburn, Jena, ‘Material Witness: Representations of Space’, Catalogue Essay, The Project Space, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, March 2006
- 2005 Copley, Martina, ‘Translation’, Exhibition Catalogue Essay, Gallery 101, Nov 2005
- MacNeil, Jess, ‘Indecipherable Eloquence’, Exhibition Catalogue Essay, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, June 2005
- 2004 Breen, Sally, ‘The Rate of Forgetting’, Exhibition Catalogue Essay, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, June 2004
- MacNeil, Jess, ‘Two for One’, Two, Exhibition Catalogue, November 2004
- McSpedden, Shelley, ‘Exhibitions’, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 2, 2004
- 2003 Dunn, Richard, ‘Tenuous Ground’, Exhibition Catalogue Essay, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, July 2003
- Low, Lenny Ann, ‘Critics Pick’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 2003
- Low, Lenny Ann, ‘Red Shift’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 August 2003
- Stowell, J, ‘Context Remains Ever Important’, Newcastle Herald, March 29 2003
- Warren, Diana, ‘Journal/Journey’, Catalogue essay for the exhibition ‘Julie Fragar, Jessica MacNeil, Shaan Syed’, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, February 2003
- 2002 Low, Lenny Ann, “Travels With My Ant”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 July 2002
