Reverend Joyce McDonald (b. 1951; Brooklyn, New York) lives and works in Brooklyn. As a teenager, she performed at the Apollo Theater in the girl group The Primettes. After her HIV diagnosis in 1995, and a long battle with addiction, McDonald was ordained as a minister at the Church of the Open Door in 2009. She uses her own struggles to drive her work as an artist, activist, advocate, and “spiritual nurse.” Through her art and ministry, McDonald shares her contagious joy and love and inspires women to get in touch with their inner beauty and dignity. She uses sculpture, painting, poetry, and song to help people find healing. Her work as an activist and advocate includes founding an HIV awareness and creative arts group for young girls and teens, working with women in shelters and hospitals, writing letters to incarcerated women, coordinating her church's AIDS ministry, and serving as assistant director of its children's choir. She is also an active artist-member of Visual AIDS.

McDonald first exhibited her artwork in 1998 at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York as part of an annual exhibition organized by art therapist Robert Morrissey. She subsequently began sharing her work regularly in churches, community centers, and AIDS organizations, where she also organized events, as well in numerous exhibitions produced by Visual AIDS at venues such as Judson Memorial Church in New York, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art in Brooklyn, and the Paul Robeson Art Galleries at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. In 1999, McDonald presented her first solo exhibition, The Spirit of Life, at The Church of the Open Door in Brooklyn and went on to exhibit her work regularly in churches, community centers, AIDS organizations, and universities (1).

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McDonald’s solo and two–artist exhibitions include Art Basel Kabinett, Maureen Paley, Basel, Switzerland (2026); Gordon Robichaux, New York (2026, 2024 and 2021); Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald, Bronx Museum, New York (2025); Leilah Babirye and Reverend Joyce McDonald, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, California (2025); and Maureen Paley, London (2023). Her work has been celebrated in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Art Newspaper, Artforum, Frieze, ARTnews, New York Magazine, Acne Paper, and POZ. In conjunction with the institutional survey of the artist’s work, Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald, Visual AIDS published the first major catalogue dedicated to McDonald’s work, with texts by Kyle Croft and Dr. Jareh Das and an interview with the artist by Rafael Sánchez.

McDonald has participated in numerous group exhibitions including at Maureen Paley Morena di Luna in Hove, United Kingdom; STARS Gallery, Marc Selwyn Gallery, and Parker Gallery in Los Angeles; as part of the exhibitions Origin Story at Gordon Robichaux; Souls Grown Diaspora at apexart (organized by Sam Gordon); AIDS at Home (Art and Everyday Activism) at the Museum of the City of New York; Everyday at La MaMa Galleria; PERSONS OF INTEREST at the Bureau of General Services–Queer Division (organized by Sam Gordon); Curated at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts; and taken-up at Judson Memorial Church in New York; Syracuse University Art Museum in Syracuse, New York; and as part of HIV+WOMEN+ART at Puffin Foundation Gallery in New Jersey. She is a 2022 Ford Foundation Fellow and a 2026 recipient of a Wynn Newhouse Award.

McDonald’s artwork is held in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; and the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland.

McDonald is the proud mother of two daughters, Makeeba Page and Taheesha Thomas; one son-in-law, Jessie Thomas; nine grandchildren: Qualazia Page, Jesse J. Thomas, Ebony Thomas, Jesshawn Thomas, Isaiah Page, Jaylin Thomas, Erin Thomas, Kayla Page, and Deondre Thomas; and seven great grandchildren: Niaylah Thomas, Faith Page, Jaybron Thomas, Gianna Thomas, Justin Thomas, Justice Thomas, and Jazai Thomas.

She is one of Willie and Florence McDonald’s seven children, including her four brothers Lavert McDonald, Fred McDonald, Victor McDonald, and Kevin McDonald, and her two sisters, Janet McDonald and Debra McDonald-Jackson.

1. Croft, Reverend Joyce McDonald: MINISTRY (New Yok: Visual Aids, 2025), 8–17.