About
Jenna MacLean (b.2001) is a Scottish abstract and gestural painter who received her BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (2024) and MLitt from The Glasgow School of Art (2025).
Maclean’s practice is rooted in the unconscious through which she explores nostalgia and procedural memory. This interest in implicit, embodied knowledge is evident in the gestural and instinctive mark-making within her work, and invites the viewer to enter a state of reminiscence: both wholly present but distantly apart. MacLean’s process privileges immediacy, guiding the viewer through a fluid of visual language through each work. Her practice is grounded in material experimentation that resists formal compositional constraints.
MacLean has exhibited throughout Scotland and was recently shortlisted for the London Art Collective ‘Art Evol: Voices from the Undefined’ Exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London.
CV
Experience
2022
Paisley Art Institute • Exhibition Assistant • The Old Co-Op, Paisley.
2018
Art Therapy • Voluntary Assistant • The Mill, Paisley.
2018
WASPS/West College Scotland • Exhibition Assistant •
Exhibitions
Gaelic Lane Cafe, Aberdeen. Open Exhibition. 2026. ‘Untitled’.
Visual Arts Scotland , The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. 2026. ‘The Thread That Pulls’. ‘Peated’.
The Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr. 2026 (Invited Artist) .‘Tacit’. ‘The Unity of Consciousness’ ‘Beam’ , ‘A Tumultuous End’, ‘Untitled’.
The Glasgow School of Art Postgraduate Degree show. 2025. ‘Beam’, ‘A Tumultuous End’, ‘Untitled’ , ‘Peated’, ‘The Unity of Consciousness’, ‘Untitled’, ‘Natus’, ‘Untitled’.
Six Foot Gallery, Glasgow. ‘Something In the Mirage’ 2025. ‘Confluence’, ‘In Flight’.
HMVC Gallery, New York. ‘Abstract Realm’ 2025. ‘Blue In Green’.
The Glasgow School of Art, The Barnes Garage. ‘So Tonight, That I Might See’ 2025. ‘Jumbo’.
MFA Curatorial Practice, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee. ‘Pieces I Never Did’, 2025. ‘Harmony’, ‘Tartan Triptych’.
Visual Arts Scotland, ‘Now and Then’. Dalkeith Palace 2024. ‘Abstract Polyptych’.
Royal Blue Gallery, ‘Abstract Art’ Edition II, 2024. ‘Pink/Nude’.
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Annual Degree show (Dundee) - ‘Abstract Triptych followed by sound and video piece.’ 2024.
Generator Projects Member’s Show, (Dundee) – ‘Louis’ 2024
Dundee Contemporary Art Society/Scrap Antics, (Dundee) – ‘Untitled’ 2023.
Outspoken Arts/Big Art Show, (Paisley) – ‘Head in The Sky’, ‘Coffee Spill’, ‘Snegl’ 2023.
Outspoken Arts/Big Art Show, (Paisley) - ‘Mask Up’ 2022.
Unlocked/Gossip Art Collective, The Tolbooth Gallery, (Stirling) - ‘Saturday Night Dishes’ , ‘Heid Bouncin’’ 2021.
Paisley Art Institute Annual 132nd Exhibition Online, - ‘Glioblastoma Multiforme’ 2020.
West College Scotland/WASPS, (Glasgow) ‘Fragile’, ‘Ladders’, 2018.
Publications
London Art Collective ‘Art Evol: Voices from The Undefined’ Saatchi Gallery
The Glasgow School of Art ‘Masters Degree Show’ catalogue (online)
Independent Coffee Guide Scotland no.7
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design ‘Fine Art Degree Show’ catalogue
Rising Stars Fine Art Research BA (Hons) Fine Art / Art and Philosophy’ Boom Graduates.
Exoskeletons Issue one – ‘An Anthology of Artists Supporting Artists’.
Independent Coffee Guide Scotland no.6 / EH9 Espresso
Rising Stars, Visual Arts Research Conference, BA (Hons) Fine Art and Art and Philosophy
Awards
Longlisted and Shortlisted for the London Art Collective ‘Art Evol: Voices from The Undefined’ Exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London.
Education
Master of Letters Fine Art Practice, The Glasgow School of Art, 2024-2025 (Distinction)
BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of Dundee, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design , 2021- 2024 (First Class Honours)
BA Art and Design, University of Stirling, Forth Valley College, 2020- 2021. (Ordinary Degree)
HND Art and Design, Glasgow Kelvin College, 2019-2020.
HNC Fine Art, West College Scotland, 2018-2019.
NC Fine Art, West College Scotland, 2017-2018.
For a full pdf of my CV including referees, please contact me.