Merit Thursday is an experimental animator and video artist. His process is highly material-based, and he is fascinated by the human body. A transsexual queer man, Thursday’s works also focus on the queer identity, the queer fascination with artifice and fabrication, and the natural/unnatural forces that shape us.
Film Screenings
and Festivals
“second-born son: a transsexual documentary”
2023
Left Field
Bodega Film Fest
Experimental Film Fest
West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Fest
NCCC Film and Animation Festival
Unspooled Film and Animation Fest
“when i buried myself by the creek”
2022
Duluth Superior Film Fest
Flip The Script Film Fest
“Object Permanence”
2019
Cellular Cinema: Cave
“a brief autobiography”
2019
Altered Esthetics
Featured Artist
“Thursday’s Child” 2017
Altered Esthetics
Audience Award
Cellular Cinema
Trylon Microcinema
Minnanimate
Square Lake Film Festival
“Truthful Innards” 2016
Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival
Speechless Film Festival
BLOW-UP International Art House FILM FEST
Sydney Underground Film Festival
MinnAnimate 5
Square Lake Film Festival
OUTeast Film Festival
Inside Out Toronto Film Festival
Subversive Cinema Society
Best Experimental Film
Boston Underground Film Festival
“The Votive Cube” 2015
Speechless Film Festival
Cinema Lounge
Adjunct Faculty, Animation, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
2021 to Present
Teaching artist, Animation/Video/Illustration, COMPAS
2018 to 2024
Teaching artist, Animation/Video, Minneapolis College of Art and Design Continuing Education
2021 to present
Teaching artist, Animation, Perpich Arts High School
2017 to 2018
Teaching assistant, Animation, Minneapolis College of Art and Design PCSS
2015, 2016, 2017
Educator
Jerome Hill Fellow, Minneapolis, MN
2023/2025
Residency, “make : magnify”, Minneapolis, MN
2024
Residency, “Embodied Material”, Minneapolis, MN
2023
Group Exhibition and Residency, “Eye to Eye”, Fresh Eye Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2022
Grants and
Residencies
Group Exhibition, “Selections”, YAG/Garage, Pescara Italy
2020
Group Exhibition, "Up & Out", Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN
2017
Group Exhibition, "We Are Survivors", Public Space One, Dubuque, IA
2016
Group Exhibition, "Selections From MCAD", BIW Gallery, Edina, MN
2015
Group Exhibition, BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, MCAD, Minneapolis, MN
2015
Solo Exhibition, Awakenings Concert, Buffalo Methodist Church, Buffalo, MN
2014
Group Exhibition, Fluxus, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012
Group Exhibition, Paintings for Peace, Sexual Violence Center, Minneapolis, MN
2011
Exhibitions
Founder/Curator/Director/Host, Weird Stuff Only, Minneapolis, MN
2022 to present
Founder/Curator/Director/Host, Video Variant, Minneapolis, MN
2017 to 2020
Host, Cinema Lounge, Minneapolis, MN
2019 to present