Ceramic sculpture, spirituality, and resilience converge in McDonald’s first solo museum exhibition.
Reverend Joyce McDonald, Untitled, 2021. Collection of Christine Meleo Bernstein and Armyan Bernstein. Photo: Ryan Page.
On September 5, 2025, The Bronx Museum opens ‘Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald’, the first museum exhibition dedicated to the extraordinary sculptural practice of the Brooklyn-born artist and ordained minister. Curated by Kyle Croft, Executive Director of Visual AIDS, in collaboration with The Bronx Museum, the exhibition surveys nearly three decades of McDonald’s deeply personal ceramic works, tracing how art, healing, and faith intertwine in her life and practice.
McDonald began working with clay in 1997 through an art therapy program, shortly after her diagnosis with HIV. What started as a therapeutic outlet quickly became a vocation. She discovered in clay a material capable of holding both her pain and her hope, allowing figures to emerge intuitively—at once fragile, devotional, and affirming.
A confessional practice
McDonald calls herself a “testimonial artist,” unafraid to draw from her own life to reveal universal truths. Her sculptures, made from air-dry clay, terracotta, and glazed ceramic, often depict figures in embrace, prayer, or repose. They carry traces of lived experience—inflected with humour, vulnerability, and unflinching honesty.
Her works also reflect her journey “from the shooting gallery to the art gallery,” as she describes it: a path through addiction, illness, and recovery towards a practice rooted in faith and service. In pieces like Golden Tears (2021) and Mother’s Prayers (1999), she distils hardship and resilience into forms that are both intimate and monumental in their emotional resonance.
Art as ministry
Ordained in 2009, McDonald sees her artistic practice as inseparable from her ministry. Each sculpture is a vessel for compassion and connection, offering solace and dignity while addressing themes of loss, survival, and devotion. Her commitment to service extends beyond the studio—she has founded HIV awareness and creative arts programs for young women, coordinated her church’s AIDS ministry, and advocated for women in shelters, hospitals, and prisons.
In ‘Ministry’, art and spirituality come together as one. The exhibition includes archival photographs taken by her father, situating her work within her personal history at Brooklyn’s Farragut Houses. It also incorporates her love of music—including a recording by McDonald herself—enveloping visitors in the multisensory world of her testimony.
Curatorial framing
Inspired by McDonald’s long history of repurposing everyday furniture and stairs as pedestals, the exhibition’s design by Le Xie presents her sculptures on stepped platforms. This architectural gesture highlights both the humility and elevation in her work—placing the viewer in dialogue with figures that are approachable yet radiant with presence.
The show is accompanied by a richly illustrated 112-page catalogue published by Visual AIDS and The Bronx Museum, featuring essays by Croft and Dr. Jareh Das, along with a conversation between McDonald and artist Rafael Sánchez. It is the first book devoted entirely to McDonald’s sculptural practice.
A lifetime of creativity and advocacy
Born in Brooklyn in 1951, McDonald’s creative journey began early—she performed as a teenager at the Apollo Theatre with the girl group The Primettes. After her HIV diagnosis in 1985 and struggles with addiction, she turned to sculpture in the late 1990s. Over the decades, she has become a vital figure in Visual AIDS’s community of artists living with HIV, exhibiting extensively in New York and London, with recent solo exhibitions at Gordon Robichaux (2021, 2024) and Maureen Paley (2023).
Her work now resides in significant collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Hammer Museum, and the Hessel Museum of Art. Yet, ‘Ministry’ marks a pivotal moment: the recognition of her practice within the walls of a major public institution, affirming both the artistic and spiritual legacies she has built.
‘Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald’ is on view at The Bronx Museum from September 5, 2025, through January 11, 2026. For more information, visit bronxmuseum.org.
