Born in
Glasgow, McKenzie studied for her BA at
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in
Dundee from 1995–1999, and at
State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe in Germany in 1998. During this time she played guitar in the
post rock band
Ganger. McKenzie first came to prominence when she won the EAST award at
EASTinternational in 1999 which was selected by
Peter Doig and
Roy Arden. She has since shown work in many exhibitions, such as “The Dictatorship of the Viewer” at the
Venice Biennale,
Becks Futures 2000 in London,
Manchester and Glasgow and “Happy Outsiders” at Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw. She has exhibited internationally at galleries and museums including
Tate Britain in London,
Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland and the
Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis. In 2007 McKenzie stumbled upon a mention of the of Brussels while browsing in a secondhand bookshop in Brussels and promptly signed up for the six-month course. Using the school’s illusionistic techniques she created large-scale paintings, like the "vertigo-inducing Untitled (2010)". These and a book she published about her experiences there are credited in helping revive interest in the declining school. In 2013 McKenzie exhibited at
Tate Britain in 'Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists'. The
Art Institute of Chicago featured McKenzie in 2014 in an exhibition entitled
focus: Lucy McKenzie. The seventh season of The Artist's Institute at Hunter College, New York was dedicated to Lucy McKenzie, September 20, 2013 – February 2, 2014, describing her as an artist who "makes works drawn from the artistic lieu of the cities and social circles she inhabits. Early paintings appropriated the language of
Alasdair Gray's Glasgow murals of the 1970s, while more recent projects have reconstructed archetypal domestic interiors by employing faux finishing techniques. McKenzie has also founded a record label, a bar, a fashion line, and is currently experimenting with the field of crime fiction." She was a guest professor at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 2011-2013. In April 2025 an article on the
Euronews website reported speculation that she was in fact the anonymous
street artist Banksy. ==Exhibitions==