Kathleen McDonald is a West Indian multidisciplinary artist who creates installations in the themes of identity, culture, memory, and immigration. McDonald's work uses aspects of the Caribbean including flora, mythology, and poetry to question one’s relationship to place and past and reclaim lost histories. McDonald is trained in a variety of textile techniques, photography, printmaking, painting and metal fabrication and casting which are often used in her work.

 

McDonald received dual BFA degrees in Pictorial Art and Photography, and holds a Master of Fine Arts from San Jose State University. McDonald has worked for non-profit and small art organizations educating and inspiring creativity in youth of varying ages. Since 2014, McDonald has taught at a number of higher education institutions in the Bay Area such as West Valley College, and Academy of Art University, and is currently the Photography Facility Coordinator at San Jose State University.

McDonald maintains a studio practice in San Jose California and has exhibited in places such as New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Iran. McDonald has work permanently installed at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Credit Union, Barbados (Commissioned 2016), and work featured consecutively in The Back Woman is God exhibition. Most recently McDonald exhibited at the Evergreen Valley College Art Gallery in the exhibit: Author/ity: Her Story, Her Power.