Elizabeth MacKenzie
Illustration — MacKenzie in 2019 Elizabeth MacKenzie (born 1955) is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver known for her drawing, installation and video since the early eighties. MacKenzie uses drawing to explore the productive aspects of uncertainty through the use of repetition, interrogations of portraiture and considerations of intersubjective experience. Her work has been characterized by an interest in maternal ambivalence, monstrous bodies, interrogations of portraiture and considerations of the complexity of familial and other interpersonal relations.
Also recorded as Elizabeth Mackenzie
Elizabeth MacKenzie

Elizabeth MacKenzie · About — Elizabeth MacKenzie · CC BY 4.0
- Born
- 1955
- Nationality
- Canada
- Occupation
- artist · film director · photographer
- Education
- University of Saskatchewan
- Honours
- Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case
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Illustration — MacKenzie in 2019 Elizabeth MacKenzie (born 1955) is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver known for her drawing, installation and video since the early eighties. MacKenzie uses drawing to explore the productive aspects of uncertainty through the use of repetition, interrogations of portraiture and considerations of intersubjective experience. Her work has been characterized by an interest in maternal ambivalence, monstrous bodies, interrogations of portraiture and considerations of the complexity of familial and other interpersonal relations.
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wikidata · Q28974174 · wikipedia · Elizabeth MacKenzie
In this article
Early life and education
Early life and education
Elizabeth MacKenzie was born 1955 in Trois-Rivières, Québec. MacKenzie graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1979 and received an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan in 1993.
Curating and professional roles
Curating and professional roles
Elizabeth MacKenzie is sessional faculty at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. She co-curated a number of exhibitions including Persistent Resistance: Early video in Vancouver exhibition in Vancouver with Canadian art historian and Curator Jennifer Fisher and artist and professor, Marina Roy at the VIVO Media Arts Centre in 2008. She co-lead with Cindy Mochizuki and Kristina Fiedrich the Vancouver Draw Down 2011: Summer of Ten Thousand Drawings a citywide workshop series sponsored by the Vancouver Park Board.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions include UnBecoming: An Annotated Exhibition, curated by Sarah Cavanaugh in 2016 at Seymour Art Gallery in North Vancouver.The Gaze of History: Portraits from the Collection, curated by Darrin Martens, Burnaby Art Gallery at Deer Lake (British Columbia) in 2012. "At the BAG, MacKenzie has used powdered graphite to draw portraits of the building’s former occupants directly on the gallery’s white walls. The effect she achieves is pale, insubstantial, ephemeral—ghostly, really." Reunion, curated by Corrine Corry at the Richmond Art Gallery in Richmond, British Columbia. In the 2004 review of this exhibition art critic Robin Laurence writes; "Reunion seems to be about the slippery intersection of love, loss, memory, and meaning; about attempts to call up the dead through both photography and obsessive recollection; and about the impossibility of fixing any person, place, or thing through such attempts." The Underside of Shadows, in 2001 with writer Jeanne Randolph at Artspeak Gallery in Vancouver. Group exhibitions include; Mount Saint Vincent Art Gallery (Halifax), the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston), the Glenbow Museum (Calgary), the Mackenzie Art Gallery (Regina) and the Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver).Dessin-Installation-Drawing-Installation in 1984 at The Sadye Bronfman Centre for the Arts in Montréal curated by Diana Nemiroff.
Identity
Identity
Elizabeth MacKenzie is recorded as having received Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1955
Elizabeth MacKenzie was born in 1955.
Practice and collaborations
Her practice includes an ongoing commitment to collaboration, curating, writing and teaching. Elizabeth MacKenzie is also one of the founding board members of the YYZ Gallery in Toronto. The Underside of Shadows was a collaboration between MacKenzie and writer Jeanne Randolph that undertook to extend their earlier long distance, technologically mediated collaboration at Artspeak Gallery in Vancouver from September 8 to October 13, 2001. MacKenzie's work has been contextualized alongside visual artist Nancy Spero in Jo Anna Isaak's book; Feminism and Contemporary Art: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Laughter. MacKenzie produced the video I am an Artist My name is.... in 1986 with Canadian artist and York University Associate Professor Judith Schwarz.
Collections
Collections
Elizabeth MacKenzie's work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada and found in the Art Bank at The Canada Council, as well as the Burnaby Art Gallery.
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Elizabeth MacKenzie received Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Elizabeth MacKenzie”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q28974174: Elizabeth MacKenzie
General reference · Wikidata
Selected bibliography
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Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Elizabeth MacKenzie | Emily Carr University. Connect Emily Carr University. 2017.
- 2.Elizabeth MacKenzie. National Gallery of Canada. 2017.
- 3.Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary. truck.ca. 2017.
- 4.Mercer Union. mercerunion.org.
- 5.Elizabeth MacKenzie. Emily Carr University. 2017.
- 6.Persistent Resistance: Early Feminist Video in Vancouver (Day 1) AHVA - The Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory. ahva.ubc.ca.
- 7.Vancouver Draw Down unleashes the artist in everyone. Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2012-06-05.
- 8.Heller, Nancy G. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. 355. 1997. 1135638829.
- 9.YYZ.
- 10.Randolph, Jean. The Underside of Shadows. Artspeak Gallery. 2001. 0921394373.
- 11.Isaak, Jo Anna. Feminism and Contemporary Art: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Laughter. Routledge. 146–7. 1996. 0415080142.
- 12.York University. yorku.ca.
- 13.Laurence, Robin. Burnaby Art Gallery's The Gaze of History considers point of view. The Georgia Straight. 2012.
- 14.Laurence, Robin. Elizabeth MacKenzie, "Reunion" and Sean Alward, "Doppelganger". The Georgia Straight. 2004.
- 15.Elizabeth MacKenzie. www.gallery.ca.
- 16.Van Eijnsbergen, Ellen. The Ornament of a House: 50 Years of Collecting. Burnaby Art Gallery. 117. 2017. 978-1-927-364-23-9.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Betterton, Rosemary. Maternal Bodies in the Visual Arts. Manchester University Press. 2014. 978-0-7190-8348-8.
- Biggs, Lesley. Gendered Intersections:An Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies. Fernwood Publishing. 259. 2011. 9781552664131.
- Love, Karen. Facing History Portraits from Vancouver. Arsenal Pulp. 26–27. 2002. 9781551521275.
- Belton, Robert. Sights of Resistance: Approaches to Canadian Visual Culture. University of Calgary Press. 2001. 9781552380116.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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