Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald
On View July 18 – October 12, 2025
Through sculpture, Reverend Joyce McDonald crafts moving testimonies to themes that have shaped her life: hope, grace, and serenity, but also hardship, loss, and devotion. Her work often depicts figures in repose or embrace, embodying the strength, support, and unconditional love that has sustained her life.
The first museum exhibition devoted to her work, Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald, surveys the artist’s prolific output since the 1990s, bringing together early works in air-dry clay and found materials with recent glazed ceramics.
An ordained minister, spirituality and service are integral to McDonald’s life and work. She understands her art as an extension of her ministry, a channel for divinity, compassion, and healing. A self-described testimonial artist, McDonald is open about sharing her own story—“from the shooting gallery to the art gallery”—through her artwork to inspire confidence and dignity in others.
The presentation presents a nuanced view of McDonald’s biography, incorporating archival materials that trace her family and upbringing in Brooklyn’s Farragut houses as well as her decades of exhibiting art with Visual AIDS.
A catalog will accompany the exhibition, published by Visual AIDS in collaboration with The Bronx Museum.
Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald is curated by Kyle Croft, Executive Director of Visual AIDS.
Top Image: Reverend Joyce McDonald, Covered with Love, 2003. Air dry clay, acrylic paint, fabric, glue, nail, 7.5 × 6.5 × 5.5 inches. Courtesy of Gordon Robichaux, New York. Photograph by Ruben Diaz.