# Rachel Maclean (artist)

Rachel Maclean (born 1987) is a Scottish visual artist and filmmaker. She lives and works in Glasgow. Her films have shown widely in galleries, museums, film festivals, and on television. She has screened work at numerous festivals in the UK and internationally, such as Rotterdam International Film Festival, Ars Electronica, Fantastic Fest, Mecal Pro, Fantasia Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival. She has received significant acclaim with solo shows at Tate Britain and The National Gallery, London, and she represented Scotland at the 2017 Venice Biennale with her film Spite Your Face. Her work A Whole New World (2014) won the prestigious Margaret Tate Award in 2013. She has twice been shortlisted for the Jarman Award, and achieved widespread critical praise for Feed Me at the British Art Show in 2016. Maclean is also a NUAcT Research Fellow at Newcastle University.

## Early life and education

Maclean was born in Edinburgh.
She has a BA in Drawing and Painting from Edinburgh College of Art.

## Work

Maclean produces elaborate films and digital prints using extravagant costume, over-the-top make-up, green screen vfx and electronic soundtracks. Using film and photography, she creates outlandish characters and fantasy worlds which she uses to delve into politics, society and identity. Wearing colourful costumes and make-up, Maclean often takes on every role in her films herself. She uses computer technology to generate her locations, and borrows audio from television and cinema to construct narratives with a comedic touch.
Maclean's artwork is both seductive and disturbing, it sucks the viewer into oversaturated candy coloured worlds and repels them with unsettling themes and narratives. She explores issues of identity, class, nationalism and gender, whilst referencing narrative structures from pop culture and fairy-tales.

## Exhibitions

Maclean has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Giessen, Germany (2024), Kunstpalais Erlangen, Germany (2023), Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2021), Arsenal Contemporary, New York (2019), The National Gallery, London (2019), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2018), KWM Arts Centre, Beijing (2018), Dublin City Art Gallery, Ireland (2018), Tate Britain, London (2017), HOME, Manchester (2016), Edinburgh Printmakers (2013), Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2013), Trade Gallery, Nottingham (2013) and Generator Projects, Dundee (2012).
Her work has also been shown at the State Museum of Urban Sculpture, St Petersburg, Russia, Kunstarkaden, Munich, Germany, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
Maclean exhibited in British Art Show 8 with Feed Me.
Maclean was selected to represent Scotland in Venice at the 57th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, 2017. This solo presentation of new work centred on a major new film commission. The presentation is commissioned and curated by Alchemy Film & Arts in partnership with Talbot Rice Gallery and the University of Edinburgh.

## Film Screenings

Maclean's films have screened widely at numerous international film festivals including BFI London Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Tampere Film Festival, Fantasia Film Festival, Minikino Film Week, Ars Electronica, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, MotelX Lisbon International Horror Film Festival, Mecal Pro International Short Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Kurzfilm Hamburg, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Lo Schermo dell'arte, Glasgow Short Film Festival, and Uppsala International Film Festival, among others.

## Awards

In 2013, Maclean received the Margaret Tait Award for her contribution to Glasgow Film Festival and was twice shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award.
Maclean's film DUCK (2024) received an award at the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.
Make Me Up (2018) won the International Federation of Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI)