Evie McKenna - Artist
Evie McKenna is an artist and animator born near the lower Delaware River in Chester, PA, and is now living in the western Catskill mountains of New York State close to the upper Delaware River. She has exhibited her print work at the Wave Hill House, Queens Museum, the Concord Museum and Ricco-Maresca gallery among other venues. Her films have been screened internationally as well as locally in such festivals as the Big Eddy Film Festival, Fantastical Film Festival and the Bruge International Film Festival. She has received a new works grant from the Queens Council on the Arts, the NYFA Catalogue Project grant and she was selected as a SuCasa teaching artist multiple times. Residencies include the Montello Foundation, Yaddo, the Chinati Foundation, PS122 and the Wave Hill Winter Artist Program. She has taught extensively, working at School of Visual Arts, Pratt, Brooklyn College and the Catskill Art Space among others.
Myopia is a condition where distant objects appear to be blurry while closer things look normal. I am rearranging the terms in this definition and by terms, I mean the focus or clarity of my botanical subjects. The confusion vs. recognition of the sharpness within a popular and familiar subject allow me to make a tableau with my subject that fuses my vision onto one plane.
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The disciplines that I am currently using are areas where I am fusing my background, drawing and animation. In certain ways, the tech changes in photography that initially seemed to make the process easier, propelled me to look at how the hand of the artist could still be seen. Seeing through lenses is a fascination and the process of finding a type of correctness or sharpness was of less interest to me than the path taken to get there. In these works, I often stop halfway where sharp focus lay next to near abstraction. By using overlays of drawn and painted patterns, I could meld the two into a game of choice for the viewer. I intentionally leave areas of the work unaltered and recognizable. The altered image is made with materials that have properties that are imprecise, messy and clearly not identified with the botanicals as they exist.​​​
My animations are short, and by design, they are asking viewers to suspend belief in the world as we know it, by taking a familiar and popular subject of the botanical world, and to ask you to reconsider what you know and are sure of and what is shifting beneath your feet every day. Color is huge, pattern also, and that is another reason why the wealth of both of these attributes is abundant in the natural world. The trance like feel of a friendly subject being reconfigured on the big or small screen is transportive. The experimental nature of the work challenges an expectation of narrative and the suspension of an exact focal plane which is part of the experience of myopia, is an objective of the work.
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I live in upstate New York, in an inspiring landscape, part of which is my garden and other parts are forest land. My teaching experience includes teaching at SVA, Pratt, Brooklyn College and at various workshops teaching photography. My work as photo editor involved major publications at The New Yorker, Time Inc. and Rodale Press.
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Exhibitions/Screenings
​​2025
Dublin Movie Awards, Allentown Film Festival, Brooklyn International Short Awards, screenings for short film Greener Greenie
TSTS Film Festival short film premiere Block Chain screened at New Memories in Parksville, NY
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2024
Wild Roof Journal, Fall issue, Smalls #14 Fantastical Films, Callicoon Theater, Callicoon Art Walk
Harvest Lungs, East Village Community garden screening, Laurie Olinder, curator
New Memories Film Festival, Parksville, NY, short film presentation of three animations
Brooklyn International Film Fest, semi-finalist
Rome International Short Awards, semi-finalist
2023
Big Eddy Film Festival, Narrowsburg, NY Film festival, Shorts, Official Selection Bruges International Film Festival, Belgium, Tarkovski Grant
Harvest Lungs, East Village Community Garden, screening curated by Lori Olinder
Catskill Art Space, Livingston Manor, Fantastical Films, curated by Elizabeth Ennis
This Earth, Montello Artists group show, Concord Art Museum, Concord MA
Off Brand, A.R.T., Group show, Jackson Heights, NY
Lulea Film Festival, official selection, short film, Sweden
2022
Musee Magazine, Weekend Portfolio feature
ALTFF Film Festival finalist in Indie festival for Ultra Shorts category in Vancover
Tune in to Green, Experimental short film series online at the Diaramaroom.com
2021
Southern Utah Museum of Art, Cedar City, UT, "This Earth", Montello Foundation
Astoria Film Festival, debut of three experimental animations, Heart of Gold, NYC
Michael Foley Gallery, NYC group show with Gerald Slota and Ellen Wallenstein
2020
QCA New Works, Artists Talk, Dec. 17th with Elaine Matczak, interviewer
Queens Council on the Arts, SuCasa Program, Rochdale Village, Queens, NY.
Art from the Epicenter, online auction and exhibit
2019
Queens Council on the Arts, SuCasa Program, Newtown Center, Queens, NY Jackson Heights Art Talks, E77, Artists Talk
2018
Queens Council on the Arts, SuCasa Program, Queensbridge Houses, NY School of Visual Arts, Photo Dept faculty show
2017
Wave Hill House, Wave Hill Gardens, Bronx, NY solo show
Queens Council on the Arts, SuCasa Program online portfolio of Cambria Heights
2016
Open Source Gallery, group show, Brooklyn, NY
Montello Foundation, Montello, Nevada, artist residency
2015
Callicoon Trading, "Silhouettes", Callicoon, NY
Queens Museum Artists Market, Flushing Meadows, NY
SPARCS Program Artist, NYC Council on the Arts, Sunnyside, NY
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2014
Wave Hill House, Bronx, NY Winter Artist Residency, exhibition
Arts Commons, traveling public arts exhibitions, Queens, NY
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​​2013
School of Visual Arts, Photo Dept faculty show
2012
Catskill Art Society, "Ghosts of the Catskills," Livingston Manor, NY
Adelphi University Harley UC Gallery, Group Exhibition, Garden City, NY
2011
Mondo Studios, Queens NY, Artists open studio exhibition
2010
Society of Photographic Educators, Group Exhibition, University of the Arts, Phila
2009
Adelphi University, Klapper Center for Fine Arts, Garden City, NY
2008
Flux Factory, Queens, NY group exhibition New York, New York
Outsider Studio, Livingston Manor, NY
2007
AAVI, online exhibition with the school portal, Mexico City, Mexico
Outsider Studio, "Through An Optic Nerve", Livingston Manor, NY ​
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2006
Queens Museum, "Queens International", Studio in A City, Queens, NY
Outsider Studio, Winter Show, Livingston Manor, NY
2005
Dry Good Arts Gallery, Livingston Manor, NY Welcome to My Home
2003
Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY Minnesota Center for Photography, "Towards A Low End Theory"
2002
Queens Museum, "Everything All at Once", international exhibition with catalogue
Athens Institute of Contemporary Art, GA, "House", group show of photography
2001
Open City, portfolio from “Directions to My House”, online and literary journal
2000
Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, "Seeds, Squares and Houses", three-person show
Von Lintel & Nusser Gallery, NY, "Unconscious Documentaries" curated by Paul Ha
The Meat Market Fair, White Columns entrant, Chelsea, New York
1999
Silverstein Gallery, New York, group show
White Columns, NY, "Visitor", curated by Lauren Ross
Brooklyn Brewery, New York, "Mothers Work"
1998
Richard Anderson Fine Arts, project space, New York
Williamsburg Arts & Cultural Center, "Williamsburg Bridges Tibet" Brooklyn, New York
Baird Center, South Orange, New Jersey, "Image after Image", group show
Gallery 292, New York, group show NYU/ICP alum
Richard Anderson Fine Arts, group exhibition curated by Casey Kaplan, New York
Awards
​​2020 Queens Council on the Arts, New Works Grant, NYC Dept of Art
Queens Council on the Arts, SuCasa in Rochdale Village, Queens, Y
2019 Su Casa grant, Newtown Italian Center, Queens, NY
2018 Su Casa grant, Queensbridge Houses
2017 Montello Foundation Residency, Montello, Nevada
Su Casa grant, Cambria Heights, Alpha Phi Alpha center
2015 Sunnyside Community Houses, Sparks grant
2001 New York Foundation for the Arts, grant for catalogue project, “Directions to My House”​​​​​
Artist Residencies
2017 Montello Foundation residency, Montello, Nevada
2014 Wave Hill, Winter Residency program, three-month project
1998 Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas artist residency
1994 PS 122, Artists studio recipient
1991 Yaddo, artist residency in Saratoga Springs, New York
1989 National Park Service, Ellis Island, New York, Visiting Artists Program
Education
MA New York University/ International Center of Photography, NY
BFA University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, photography and printmaking​
Teaching
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
School of Visual Arts, New York City
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
AAVI, D.F. Mexico City, Mexico
LaGuardia Community College, Queens, NY
Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Publications/Reviews
including Musee Magazine, weekend portfolio series online, SUMA "This Earth", catalogue of exhibition of Montello Foundation residents environmental works, Everything All At Once, Queens Museum exhibition catalogue
Art Papers, Flash Art, Athens Banner-Herald, Directions to My House, self-published book of photograph of the built environment Open City, The New Yorker