About
​Lily (Basil) MacLachlan is a relatively normal person and a mixed media artist based in Chicago, IL. Their artistic process is to play, draw, recycle and reiterate ideas and materials to ensure that nothing is wasted. They frequently work with fibers and soft sculpture, collage, illustration, comics, sculpture and assemblage, and try to combine these media as often as they can. They approach subjects of late stage capitalism and future technologies through an atavistic lens, using outdated methods and inefficient processes to create meaningful works in dialogue with past and future worlds. Their work tends to focus on the esoteric, taboo, and the ritual of the everyday; late-stage capitalism and its effects; queerness and queer embodiment; and rebirth, death, and the finiteness of life.
Contact
Curriculum Vitae
Exhibitions and Events
Super Exclusive Expo / Sheep Cult Comics
Chicago, IL / 2026
Lines and Language / Prism Art Spaces
Chicago, IL / 2026
Zine Exhibition / Anno Domini
San Diego, CA / 2025
Smash the Cis-tem! / Adler Arts Center
Libertyville, IL / 2025
The Impossibles / Lumen Arts Center
Izmir, Türkiye / 2025
Lavender Feels / Side Street Studio Arts
Elgin, IL / 2025
P-P-Punk! / The Dollhouse
Chicago, IL / 2025
Haunted Gallery / Studio 928
Oak Park, IL
Gender Jumble Juggernaut / Agitator Gallery
Chicago, IL
Small Works Expo / Artpie
Waukegan, IL
Inflection Point: Gender Futures, Political Possibilities / Oakton Community College
Des Plaines, IL
SAIC BFA Show / School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL / March 2024
Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free / Hazroom Gallery
Chicago, IL / July 2024
WHIM Cares: Gay Beach / Stage 773
Chicago, IL / June 2024
We See You: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2024 / Oak Park Artist’s League
Oak Park, IL / June 2024
Oxbow Open House / Oxbow School of Art
Saugatuck, MI / August 2023
Iridescent Footprints: Intergenerational Queer Art Exhibition / Center on Halsted
Chicago, IL / May 2023
Pages In Between - A Sketchbook Exhibition / RHE Siragusa Gallery
Chicago, IL / December 2021
Mining Words - An Artists’ Books Exhibition / The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection
Chicago, IL / September 2021
Group Thesis Exhibition / Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art
Winston Salem, NC / May 2019
Juried Exhibition / UNCSA Library
Winston Salem, NC / November 2019
Intensive Arts Exhibition / UNCSA 4th floor Workplace
Winston Salem, NC / November 2019
Publications
Transgender Esotericism: Transgenderism, Alchemy, and the Androgyne / Poetries in English / 2026
Yaoi Cards / Transmasc Boston / 2025 / Boston, MA
First date, Indirect Kiss and Photoshop Love / Cosmic Studios / 2025 / Angoulême, FRANCE
Untitled Yuri Comic (Photoshop Love) / Dike Stynk Volume 2 / 2025 / Chicago, IL
Yaoi Cards / PRIOT / 2025 / Rome, ITALY
First date, Indirect Kiss / Restless Violets Magazine / 2024 / London, UK
It’s the End of the World and I’m on Fucking Linkedin / Agitator Gallery Chapbook / 2024 / Chicago, IL
Bishounen (Short Fiction) / Mouth Magazine / 2023 / Chicago, IL
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Self Published
Kratom Burger / Inkjet Zine / 2025
Untitled Yuri Comics Volume One / Riso Zine / 2024
I Love You And Everything Dies & Decays & Fades Away, So Let’s Be Friends Until The Bitter End, OK? / Riso Zine / 2022 - 2024
Untitled (Quarantine Zine) / Lazerjet Zine / 2021
Being Zine / Inkjet Zine / 2018
Painstar Zine / Lazerjet Zine / 2018
Residencies and Achievements
Helikon Artist Residency / Kocaeli, Türkiye / 2025
Northwestern Gender Pathways Artists’ Residency / Chicago, Illinois / 2024
Oxbow School of Art / Saugatuck, Michigan / 2023
SAIC’s Presidential Scholarship, renewed yearly / 2019 - 2024
SAIC First Year Scholars program / 2019 - 2020
Kenan Foundation Penland fellowship / Penland, North Carolina / 2019
Education
School of the Art Institute of Chicago / Undergraduate Bachelor of Fine Arts
Graduated with a BFA in 2024
University of North Carolina School of the Arts / High school visual arts program
Graduated 2019
Coursework
Deep Risography / Conor Stechulte / 2024
Risograph printing
Advanced Print for Fiber and Material Studies / Amy Yoes / 2023
Screenprinting, Sewing Machine Proficiency
Offset Printing / Thomas Denlinger / 2022
Offset Print, Book Construction
The Artist Formerly Known as Starving: Professional Practice / Beth Hetland / 2021
Professional writing, Formulating contracts and book deals, Networking
Artists’ Books / Florence Liu / 2021
Book construction and maintenance
