Cecil McDonald Jr.

Cecil McDonald Jr. uses photography, video, and text to explore the intersections of masculinity, familial relations, and the artistic and intellectual pursuits of black culture. He studied fashion, house music, and dance club culture before receiving a MFA in Photography at Columbia College Chicago, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor. He also is a teaching artist at Nicholas Senn High School through the School Partnership for Art and Civic Engagement (SPACE) program at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Cecil's work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, with works in the permanent collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Chicago Bank of America LaSalle Collection, and the Harris Bank Collection. He was awarded the Joyce Foundation Midwest Voices & Visions Award, the Artadia Award, The Swiss Benevolent Society Residency, and a 2010 3Arts Teaching Artist Award. In 2016, the first edition of his monograph In The Company of Black was published and subsequently shortlisted by the Aperture Foundation for the 2017 First Photo Book Award. In 2019 he had a major solo exhibition of his work at the Chicago Cultural Center.