The Art of Dayna McLeod

Legendary Montreal artist Dayna McLeod has delighted audiences worldwide for more than a quarter-century with her interdisciplinary art and trademark humour. Her writing, performances and videos explore gender, media representation, the female body and construction of sexual identity through her unique and quirky lens.

McLeod’s work has been presented at prestigious festivals and institutions throughout Europe – including the Modern Art Museum in Warsaw and Le Centre d’art contemporain in Paris – as well as North America, Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong and South Africa. McLeod teaches at both Concordia and McGill universities in Montreal where her work has been celebrated at OFFTA, PHI, Les Rendez-vous du cinéma Québécois and the image+nation queer film festival.

After the death of her spouse Maria-José (“MJ”) Raposo from cancer in December 2024, then surviving her own battle with cancer, a weary but determined McLeod is back in the saddle, part of the Devenirs partagés. Pratiques de l’IA group exhibition about queer approaches to AI that runs at the Galerie de l’Université de Montréal until February 28. Revered and widely beloved, McLeod recently sat down for a candid Q&A about her extraordinary life and work.

You recently had a cancer health scare. How are you doing?
McLeod: I’m doing okay. I’m alive. Last year I had colon cancer and thyroid cancer while grieving MJ. Now I’m just waiting on some scan results. But so far so good.

MJ passed away in December 2024. How did you deal with all of that?
McLeod: We found out MJ had pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2024. She was given a terminal diagnosis. So she came home for palliative care in September. That month we also got married in our backyard. Then in October I was diagnosed with colon cancer and had surgery in early November. It was obviously a lot to contend with. What got us through were our friends. We had people staying with us when I had to go into hospital for my surgery. I was so worried about MJ, but we had friends here around the clock. When I got out of hospital, our friends continued to help us 24/7 until the very end. MJ’s mom was obviously very supportive, was here every day for lunch, and was devastated when MJ passed. MJ was so strong, right to the end.

You were also privately dealing with your own cancer diagnosis which you did not want distracting from MJ.
McLeod: My focus was MJ. Yes, I had this diagnosis and surgery which I told a few close friends about, but I didn’t really tell anybody until after MJ passed because I didn’t want it to distract from what we needed to do.

Your new work in the Devenirs partagés. Pratiques de l’IA group exhibition at the Galerie de l’Université de Montréal is called Queer. Widow. Cancer. which uses three AI doppelgängers to talk about grief, survival, and communities of care.
McLeod: Queer. Widow. Cancer. is a three-video, three-screen installation that tells the story of MJ getting sick, coming home, of me having cancer, of MJ dying, and then of me doing chemo and trying to deal with everything. And it’s the story using AI. I’ve been working with an AI doppelgänger I call “Daynai” because my name is Dayna. Right now everybody hates AI, so what does it mean to tell a story of queer loss and queer grief and survival using AI as doppelgänger? Is there a chance for empathy? Is there a chance for understanding and playing such a vulnerable story in this way? I usually have a large dose of humour in my work, but this is pretty heavy.

Sounds like this was also a bit of a catharsis.
McLeod: I didn’t approach it as art therapy.

MJ would have been so proud of this!
McLeod: I think she would ask, “Why are you making work about me?” But I think she would get it and would be proud.

This installation and exhibition is the latest in your long and storied career. Do you prefer videos to live performance, or vice versa?
McLeod: They’re both pleasurable and satisfying in different ways. The disadvantage of video is not having that immediate audience response. There is no comparison to being in front of a live crowd doing performance and cabaret work. If you bomb, you know right away! If a joke lands, you get that laugh.

What is one of your craziest career moments?
McLeod: In the early 2000s I was doing this Canadian Beaver performance character. I made a beaver costume out of fun fur. It also had a vulva sewn into the crotch for a cabaret performance about a beaver talking about how they came to feminism. It was bad stand-up! I also did this Santa Beaver shtick where I stuffed presents in the stomach of the costume. People would then kneel in front of me and reach in through the crotch – through the vulva – of the costume and pull out a gift. Well, (late Montreal actor-playwright) Harry Standjofski reached in. He froze when I said, “Harry, that’s not what you’re looking for!” He was embarrassed, I was embarrassed, and he pulled his hand out. My lesson was I needed to wear five maxi pads to create a barrier between my real body and the beaver costume! After that, Harry and I were a bit shy around each other!

Are you a queer artist or an artist who happens to be queer?
McLeod: I’m a queer artist.

Has being a woman or being queer made your professional career journey more difficult?
McLeod: No. I feel very lucky and privileged with the amazing support I’ve gotten in Montreal, in Quebec, in Canada. The type of work I do isn’t comparable to the art market art world. Those aren’t really the circles I travel in.

You are a teacher, instructor, professor. What do you tell your queer students about being out in their work?
McLeod: I don’t know that it is my place to say what their out journey should be in 2026, but it certainly is a lot different than when you and I were coming up. What is the work about? If the work is clear, then that’s going to happen. Advice I give students and young people is, “The internet is forever. Do you want to be naked on the internet or not?” Especially women, non-binary and trans students. What are the potential consequences of revealing too much of yourself? I’m certainly coming from a place of oversharing. So what do you want to put out there? If there are any consequences, if you have any doubts whatsoever, then don’t do it. Talk to your people, your friends, your community, before you make things public. Get feedback.

What is your health prognosis these days?
McLeod: All good. Thumbs up. I have some upcoming appointments, hopefully they will tell me that I’m cancer free. I had a clear colonoscopy in December. So yes, fingers crossed. Send me all the good vibes!

You’re a living legend, Dayna.
McLeod: I’m just glad to be alive.

INFOS | Dayna McLeod’s Queer. Widow. Cancer. installation is part of the Devenirs partagés. Pratiques de l’IA group exhibition with artists Francisco Gonzàlez-Rosas, Marie-Ève Levasseur, and Marion Schneider about queer approaches to AI, at the Galerie de l’Université de Montréal. Free admission.
Visit galerie.umontreal.ca

McLeod has a new installation in the Hall of Mirrors pop-up art, media and performance project curated by Daniel Barrow and Jon Davies, showcasing Montreal LGBTQ artists in empty storefront windows in the Village, beginning on Nuit Blanche on February 28.

Visit galeriedesglaces.ca
Visit Dayna McLeod’s official website daynarama.com