Christina Sorace MacKinnon creates distinct moments charged with movement, respite, and organized chaos. With contrasting opacities of color, lyrical marks, and patterns, her energetic paintings are a cacophony of layers. Amid created tensions of overlapping shapes, labyrinths, and seemingly colliding, winding pathways,  MacKinnon searches for self-knowledge, harmony, and resolve. Through her painting process, she feels the connection between self-identity and the various effects that undiagnosed ADHD had throughout her life, especially as a woman. MacKinnon navigates and traverses her way around the canvas forming a dialogue with elements that appear to struggle against each other yet coexist harmoniously. A sensation of congestion and investigation experienced in her work correlates to her interest in dismantling narratives that have impacted her childhood and coexist with the challenges women face in a patriarchal world. She refers to her paintings as visual stories of how she reckons with these emotions and her relationship with herself and the world. 

 

A contemporary abstract painter based in New Jersey, MacKinnon has exhibited in galleries throughout the US and Canada. Various publications, including the Trenton Times, Create Magazine, and AllSheMakes, have recognized her work. She recently received a 2022 Fellowship Award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In addition, her work is in many public and private collections. MacKinnon lives and works from her studio in Flemington, New Jersey, with her husband and children.