McKenzie Coonce

[ Bio ]

McKenzie Coonce was born in 1987 in Mountain View, CA. Early on, she devoured art--with a particular taste for fashion design. With the encouragement and support of her family, she was driven to be a world famous fashion designer, taking one sewing and one commercial design class in junior high and high school respectively. Upon high school graduation, the ever-practical McKenzie declined an arts scholarship to pursue a business degree--the solid foundation on which she would build her fashion...

McKenzie Coonce was born in 1987 in Mountain View, CA. Early on, she devoured art--with a particular taste for fashion design. With the encouragement and support of her family, she was driven to be a world famous fashion designer, taking one sewing and one commercial design class in junior high and high school respectively.

Upon high school graduation, the ever-practical McKenzie declined an arts scholarship to pursue a business degree--the solid foundation on which she would build her fashion empire.

Immediately after failing all of her basic business classes, she returned to art with a newfound vigor and intense focus. Within the art department at San Diego State University, she reignited her relationship with fine art and earned her BFA in Studio Art in 2009. During her senior year, McKenzie also focused in Gallery Exhibition Design, working alongside renowned Curator and SDSU Gallery Director Tina Yapelli. Under Yapelli, McKenzie helped design and install three exhibitions on campus, introduced and facilitated artist lectures, and laid the curatorial groundwork for future exhibitions at SDSU and its downtown satellite gallery.

Post-collegiate McKenzie worked as the Studio Manager for Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, CA (now located in Berkeley) where she cultivated a deep connection to mosaics as a new, more tangible form of expression. She participated in several group exhibitions at IMA while designing and installing every show that came through the school.

McKenzie currently lives in San Francisco, CA. Her work as a fine artist presently explores linear qualities by way of oil paint, graphite, ink and glass. She still designs and installs all the exhibitions for IMA, and hopes to someday own a submarine.

[ Artwork ]