Trophies

2026
BURNABY ART GALLERY
BURNABY, CANADA

Trophies (2025) was a solo exhibition curated by Jennie Cane at the Burnaby Art Gallery. Inspired by the building's history as Simon Fraser University's first fraternity house, the exhibition explored ritual, masculinity, and systems of power through sculpture, painting, textiles, and installation. Drawing on ancient Greek traditions and fraternity culture, MacLeod used humour and symbolism to question conventional ideas of achievement, belonging, and authority through a feminist lens.

An art installation featuring a sculpture of a donkey's head with a textured, iridescent surface resembling shell material, placed on a floral-patterned rug. In the background, three colour-stained fabric panels on a wall.
Art gallery wall with framed illustrations depicting various scenes and figures, track lighting above, and a pile of pink potatoes on the floor in the corner.
A collage featuring a large photograph of military officers in uniform, with two large, black-and-white cat faces in the foreground, surrounded by blue, yellow, and green sections.
A ceramic ashtray holding a used cigar with a partially burned tip.
Wooden sculpture of a tree with a textured trunk and rounded top, displayed on a white pedestal in an art gallery, with a painted portrait of a person with a bird's eye on the face hanging on the wall behind it.
An old car visor with stickers, including a 'Holley Equipped' sticker and a 'STOP' sticker, holding a long, straight, pink-colored synthetic wig.

Photos: Rachel Topham and Blaine Campbell

The Botanist

2023
Chapter centre for the arts
cardiff, Wales

The Botanist (2023) was a solo exhibition at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Wales, curated by Simrath Panesar. Taking Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire as its point of departure, the exhibition examined the reciprocal relationship between humans and four cultivated plants—the apple, tulip, cannabis, and potato—each shaped by centuries of selection, trade, and desire. Rather than treating plants as symbols or resources, The Botanist explored them as companion species whose lives have become inseparable from our own. Drawing together references to the Garden of Eden, Tulip Mania, industrial agriculture, and contemporary cannabis cultivation, the works examined the intertwined histories of commerce, mythology, colonialism, and ecological change.

An art installation in a gallery featuring a beige sculpture of Adam and Eve, with a blue marble background. In the foreground, there is a tree stump-like object and pink potatoes on the floor, with ceiling lights illuminating the display.
Close-up of a wooden sculpture of a human figure holding an apple, with a marbled background.
A wooden sculpture of a tree trunk with a small carved wooden tree, placed on a wooden floor with a herringbone pattern. A colourful painting of marijuana buds floating in a blue sky is on the wall behind it.
A sculpture of a pinkish-orange marijuana bud hanging from a black rod with a white cord in a gallery.

Photos: Stuart Whipps

do you hear what i hear?

Do You Hear What I Hear? was a solo exhibition at Malaspina Printmakers Society, curated by Justin Muir. Developed during a year-long residency exploring textile screen-printing, the exhibition transformed the gallery's street-facing windows into a theatrical mise-en-scène inspired by the history of department store displays and early commercial window design. Through screen-printed textiles, sculpture, and installation, familiar symbols of the holiday season were reimagined as protagonists in a quietly melancholic drama.

2022
Malaspina Printmaking Society
Vancouver, BC

A pyramid of eight wrapped gift boxes with a caricature of a middle-aged woman, arranged against a white background.
Display of Christmas decorations including a tall Christmas tree with small white lights, a patterned armchair with a middle-aged woman and several wrapped presents in paper with, set against a aqua background.
The storefront of a building at night illuminated with bright red neon lights and red curtains behind glass. Inside, there are stacked gift boxes and a small decorated Christmas tree. Outside, there are leafless trees and a sidewalk.

Photos: Blair Campbell

the undesirables

2019
LIBBY LESHGOLD GALLERY
ECUAD, VANCOUVER

The Undesirables was a solo exhibition curated by Cate Rimmer at the Libby Leshgold Gallery. Bringing together maquettes, studies, casts, and unrealized proposals from more than a decade of public art projects, the exhibition revealed the speculative process behind public art. Models and prototypes became works in their own right, suggesting that ideas often have a life beyond the commissions they were made to serve.

A black and white photograph of a protest with people holding signs that read, 'Jane Jacobs Speaks for Us!', 'Drop Charges Against Jane Jacobs', 'No Road Through Our Home', 'Your City Needs Homes Not Xpress', and 'Don't Drive Through Our Homes', displayed on an easel in front of a black wall.
Pink fabric banner with red text reading 'The Undesirables' hanging on a wall.
Gallery with animal sculptures, including a donkey and a camel, and a person sculpture holding a top hat, all displayed on a platform near a window.
A black statue of a man in a top hat, standing and holding the brim of his hat, with detailed clothing and a walking stick.
A woman in a vintage dress, standing beside a small children's clay sculpturel.
Bouquet of pink, peach, white, yellow, and orange flowers wrapped in white paper with pink and purple ribbon.

Photos: Blaine Campbell and Rachel Topham

NEIGHBOURS

2019
CANADA HOUSE
LONDON, UK

Neighbours, curated by Nigel Prince, presented a series of watercolours originally created for a public artwork marking the centenary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Exhibited at Canada House in London, the drawings bring together birds from different continents into a single impossible flock. Borrowing from the tradition of the "impossible bouquet," the work reflects on migration, diversity, and the shared spaces we inhabit.

Art exhibit featuring a large brown felt banner with red abstract jumbled letters that reads purr, purr, purr, and a wall with text titled 'Myfanwy MacLeod Neighbours Voisins' on the right.
Art gallery with framed bird illustrations on a white wall, dark wooden floor, and a small sculpture of stacked books or materials on the left corner.
A wooden bird sculpture with a detailed carved face and textured wings, mounted on a stand, with a blurred dark-colored bird sculpture in the background.

Photos: Scott Massey

surrogates

2016
GRIFFIN ART PROJECTS
NORTH VANCOUVER, BC

Surrogates brought together works from private collections for a group exhibition curated by Helga Pakasaar at Griffin Art Projects. MacLeod exhibited a series of intricate collages cut from posters for The Exorcist, transforming mass-produced images into delicate paper constructions. By cutting, repeating, and reassembling familiar imagery, the works shifted a cult film into something simultaneously playful and uncanny.

Art gallery with large colorful abstract painting on the left and three smaller black and white photographs on a white wall.
Silhouette of a person standing beneath a lamppost with a circular cutout design in black with some purple elements.
A framed artwork of a Linda Blair from the film The Exorcist, cut into a snowflake creating a green and black butterfly with abstract patterns on a black background
A framed artwork of Linda Blair from the film The Exorcist with cut into the shape of a snowflake s in a black frame

the private life of the rabbit

2015
31 October 2015– 9 January 2016
OR GALLERY
VANCOUVER, BC

The Private Life of the Rabbit (2015) was a solo exhibition at the Or Gallery, Vancouver, curated by Jonathan Middleton as part of The Troubled Pastoral, a series exploring the uneasy intersections of nature, culture, and contemporary life. Inspired by R. M. Lockley's The Private Life of the Rabbit (1964), the exhibition also drew on the artist's suburban upbringing, where encounters with pets, gardens, and remnant urban wildlife shaped an early fascination with the boundaries between the domestic and the wild. The exhibition featured sculptures including an oversized pair of rabbit ears and a rabbit hutch reconstructed from photographs of one built by the artist's father for the family's pet rabbits. Moving between autobiography, natural history, and popular culture, the work transformed familiar suburban forms into sites of humour, tenderness, and quiet estrangement.

Hallway with patterned wallpaper, a pair of large grey rabbit ears, and a closed door at the end, illuminated by wall-mounted lights and ceiling lights.
Contemporary art installation on a concrete floor, including a large rectangular box with a circular hole and a window, a wooden lattice panel, and a potted dried tree with a lattice fence behind it.

TELL HER NOTHING, SHE TELLS ALL

2015
CATRIONA JEFFRIES GALLERY
VANCOUVER, BC

Tell Her Nothing, She Tells All (2015) was a solo exhibition exploring the visual language of divination, mysticism, and self-improvement, drawing on the eclectic iconography of the 1970s New Age movement. Palmistry, chakras, secret societies, and occult symbolism appeared alongside biomorphic forms and hand-crafted objects, creating an installation that oscillated between earnest belief and playful skepticism. Inviting viewers to navigate a space where intuition, humour, and ambiguity coexisted, the exhibition considered the enduring appeal of esoteric traditions and the ways they continue to shape contemporary ideas of identity, self-discovery, and transformation

A large, abstract sculpture made of yoga blocks resembling a twisting, elongated form, covered in multicoloured speckles, against a clear blue sky background.
An art gallery with sculptures on white pedestals, colorful lighting, and a neon sign of a hand with a ring on the pink wall.
Neon art of a person meditating seated in a cross-legged position, with colored circles representing chakras aligned along the body from head to pelvis, against a plain background.
A black-and-white photograph of a young man with long hair and a beard, lying on his side on a flat surface with a large, colourful, fluffy, rainbow-colored cloud-like marijuana bud in front of him. The background is a plain, light-colored wall.

Photos: Scott Massey and David Simmonds

Again and once more, again

2017
MacLaren Arts Centre
Barrie, Ontario

Presented at the MacLaren Art Centre, this group exhibition curated by Emily McKibbon examined archives, repetition, and transformation. MacLeod’s work reconfigured found imagery and cultural artifacts to reveal the instability of memory and history.

Close-up of a fabric with a black-and-white printed image of a girl's face, partially covered by a red-shaped overlay, and detailed with black fringes at the bottom.
A decorative flag stand with a gold-colored base and pole, supporting a flag with a black and white image of a clenched fist.
Three flags with grayscale images of a girl with her hair in an updo, each flag on a golden flagpole set against a plain white background.

Photos: Dennis Ha

There and back again

2014
VANCOUVER ART GALLERY
VANCOUVER, BC

Myfanwy MacLeod, or There and Back Again was a major solo exhibition at Museum London(2013)  and the Vancouver Art Gallery (2014), curated by Grant Arnold and Cassandra Getty. Bringing together new commissions alongside key works from the previous decade, the exhibition explored the complex intersections of popular culture, modernism, and personal memory. Drawing on sources as varied as Led Zeppelin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Playboy magazine, muscle cars, and Minimalist sculpture, the exhibition examined the visual mythology of postwar North American culture through a feminist lens.

Person with tattooed arm wearing a red and black plaid shirt holding a black kale and purple marijuana bud ith a light gray background.
Mannequin with a beige paper head and hair, wearing a black Led Zeppelin T-shirt, standing on a wooden stand, displayed on a white platform with beer cans in front, against a plain gray wall.
An upright orange and black vehicle cabin mounted on a metal frame with wheels, set against a black background.
Black Marshall speaker cabinets stacked in a grid formation with overhead spotlights illuminating them in a dark room.
Two tan-coloured, geodesic speakers stand on a stage with a dark backdrop showing trees and the night sky.
An art gallery with a white wall, displaying a colorful photograph of a chameleon blending with tree branches. In front of the wall, there is a potted green plant with long, slender leaves.
An art gallery with a red semi-circular sofa, a potted plant, and a wooden display cabinet with glass shelves and lighting. Two people are looking at the display, and there is a colorful painting on the wall.

Photos: Trevor Mills, Scott Massey and Rachel Topham

dorothy

2012
PRESENTATION HOUSE SATELLITE SPACE
VANCOUVER, BC

Dorothy (2012) was a solo exhibition organized by Presentation House Gallery and presented at Satellite Gallery in Vancouver. Curated by Reid Shier, the exhibition featured a new body of origami sculptures and photographs created by folding pages from Playboy magazine’s featuring Vancouver-born Playmate Dorothy Stratten. Through repeated acts of folding and unfolding, the familiar centre-fold was transformed into a series of intricate sculptural forms, shifting the image from object of consumption to one of contemplation and ambiguity.

An abstract origami sculpture made from folded and cut magazine pages, shaped into a geometric form, displayed on a white pedestal against a gray background.
Contemporary art origami sculpture made of folded magazine pages with a woman's face, displayed on a white pedestal against a plain grey background.
A paper origami sculpture of a swan on a display pedestal with the word 'Dorothy' written above it.
An art gallery with framed photographs on the walls and sculptures on white pedestals.

Photos: Eric Hood

THE LAST DROP

2013
BMO PROJECT SPACE
TORONTO, ONTARIO

The Last Drop (2013) was a solo exhibition at the BMO Project Space in Toronto, curated by Dawn Cain. At the centre of the exhibition was a life-size bronze sculpture inspired by a 1906 postcard depicting a dejected drunk seated on a log, an empty bottle hanging from one hand while the other supports his head in a gesture suspended between exhaustion and comic despair. Installed within a gallery painted entirely pink—a colour historically associated with drunken delirium and hallucination—the work transformed a fleeting vernacular image into an enduring monument. By casting this down-on-his-luck figure in bronze and placing him within the context of a bank, The Last Drop disrupted the conventions of both public sculpture and institutional space.

Bronze sculpture of a man with a hat rubbing his temple with his right hand.
Bronze sculpture of a man sitting on a log, wearing a hat and jacket, holding a small bottle in his right hand, with a thoughtful expression.
Bronze-colored hand sculpture holding a dark glass bottle upside down.
Four black circles each containing different quotes about drinking and life, with attributions from various authors including Pablo Picasso, John Huston, Sally Bowles, and Ricky Bobby.

Photos: Toni Hafkenscheid

miscreants and reprobates

2011
CHARLES H. SCOTT GALLERY
VANCOUVER, BC

Miscreants and Reprobates (2011) was an exhibition at the Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, pairing new and existing works by Myfanwy MacLeod with eighteenth-century prints by William Hogarth. Curated by Cate Rimmer, the exhibition placed MacLeod's sculptures, drawings, and prints in dialogue with Hogarth's celebrated narratives of vice, ambition, folly, and social aspiration, revealing a shared interest in the absurdities of human behaviour across three centuries.

Collage of black and white images of horror characters and scenes, including a baby doll, a distorted face, a puppet, and various creepy figures.
Black bottle with illustrated comic-style characters and scenes on it, placed on a white surface against a plain white background.
An art gallery wall featuring framed vintage documents and a red and black text on a white background that reads "MISCREANTS AND REPROBATES MYFANWY MACLEOD WILLIAM HOGARTH."
Contemporary art gallery with various framed artworks on white walls and a small sculpture on a white pedestal in the center of the room.
Empty art gallery with framed artwork on walls and sculptures on white pedestals.
A map of Texas filled with various cartoon characters, animals, and objects representing different regions and cultures of Texas.
A sculpture of a man with glasses and a mustache wearing a tuxedo, with a top hat on his head.

Photos: Scott Massey

GOLD

2009
CATRIONA JEFFRIES GALLERY
VANCOUVER, BC

Gold (2009) was a solo exhibition at Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver. Bringing together sculpture, installation, photography, and painting, the exhibition explored the unexpected affinities between folk traditions, modernism, and popular culture. Drawing on sources as diverse as homemade moonshine stills, Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs, quilt patterns and twentieth-century abstraction, the works questioned conventional distinctions between "high" and "low" culture while examining the ways objects accrue meaning through history, belief, and use. Gold, reveals how cultural value is continually negotiated through shifting contexts and acts of translation rather than fixed hierarchies.

Three large metal barrels connected to pipes in an art gallery or exhibit space.
Gallery wall with eight colorful, circular, and symmetrical art pieces displayed in black frames.
Abstract geometric artwork with various colored rectangles and lines, featuring shades of blue, orange, black, beige, gray, and pink.

Photos: Scott Massey

WHERE I LIVE AND WHAT I LIVED FOR

2006
CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY
VANCOUVER, BC

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (2006), presented at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, developed from a three-month residency at the Glenfiddich Distillery in northern Scotland. Taking its title from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, the exhibition brought together large-scale photographs, drawings and sculpture to explore ideas of retreat, economy, abandonment and the pastoral. Drawing connections between the decaying buildings surrounding the distillery and the clandestine architecture of marijuana grow-ops, MacLeod combined Scottish folklore, drug culture and representations of the supernatural. The resulting installation transformed the romantic idea of rural escape into something more uneasy: a landscape marked by secrecy, paranoia, deterioration and dark humour.

A floral fabric dress draped over a sculpture or mannequin, with only a small portion of a foot visible underneath, displayed against a plain white background.
Art gallery with framed pictures on white walls and a sculpture in the center of the room.
A wig with long, wavy, brown hair hanging on a white wall in a corner of a room.
Close-up of a beige carpet with a small brown insect near the top right corner.
Close-up of a corner of a room showing a floral wallpapered wall, a white door, hardwood floor, and a pinkish area rug.

Photos: Scott Massey

BOUNCE

2002
THE POWER PLANT GALLERY
TORONTO, ONTARIO

Bounce (2002) was a group exhibition at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, curated by Philip Monk. Bringing together new work by Brian Jungen, Myfanwy MacLeod, and Damian Moppett, the exhibition examined a younger generation of Vancouver artists whose practices expanded beyond the city's internationally recognized photo-conceptual tradition. MacLeod's contribution centered a series of sculptures inspired by hillbilly folklore, architectural follies, roadside attractions, and cinematic depictions of the rural backwoods. Oscillating between comedy and menace, the works transformed familiar vernacular forms into theatrical environments where domesticity, class, and cultural myth converged. Blurring the boundaries between monument and stage set, craft and parody,

A large stack of chopped firewood arranged neatly against a white wall with a small wooden house model on top. The model has a small window, a chimney, and a Union Jack flag.
An art installation resembling a small wooden house converted into a quirky toilet, painted blue with a toilet seat inside, in a gallery space.
Close-up view of wooden planks with engraved cursive text reading "Maybury is back."

beachcombers

2002
GASWORKS
LONDON, UK

The Beachcombers was a three-person exhibition curated by Katharine Stout at Gasworks, London, featuring Geoffrey Farmer, Brian Jungen, and Myfanwy MacLeod. Taking its title from the long-running Canadian television series, the exhibition presented the artists as cultural "beachcombers," collecting and reassembling fragments of popular culture, folklore, consumer objects, and everyday experience into new sculptural and conceptual forms. MacLeod’s works explored humour as both a formal strategy and a way of understanding the human condition. Translating the exaggerated gestures, comic mishaps, and physical choreography of slapstick into sculpture, painting, and drawing, MacLeod transformed ephemeral moments of performance into enduring objects.

Modern art gallery with a black and wooden sculpture of a house
Abstract artwork with white, yellow, and red spiked patterns on a yellow background.

hammertown

2002
Fruitmarket gallery
edinburgh, scotland

Hammertown was a group exhibition curated by Reid Shier at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, featuring a new generation of West Coast Canadian artists. MacLeod exhibited Our Mutual Friend, a carved wooden sculpture depicting a disembodied leg, foot, and arm, alongside works that drew on popular culture, film, and vernacular traditions. Borrowing its title from Charles Dickens' final novel, the sculpture uses fragmentation and humour to transform the human body into an uncanny object suspended between folk craft and contemporary sculpture.

Wooden sculpture of a reclining figure with a smooth head and carved limbs, displayed on a white pedestal.