Donnelly pursued her art studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Yale University School of Art, Connecticut. In 2004, she received the renowned CENTRAL art prize in Cologne, Germany. She has since participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions, among which are her solo shows at Kunsthalle Zurich and Modern Art Oxford, as well as at the Renaissance Society, Chicago and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Trisha Donnelly works with media such as film, sound, photography, sculpture, and drawing.