Alicia McCarthy
September 3 - October 10, 2020
September 3, 2020
Head-Image
Untitled, 2020, gouache, spray paint, and house paint on wood, 36 x 36 inches
Alicia McCarthy’s most recent body of work presents the breadth and dynamism of the artist’s entire oeuvre, centering the myriad motifs she takes as subject matter, from her signature weaves to helices, rainbows, spectrums, and negative weaves. McCarthy’s patterns function with duplicity; while direct and honest, her compositions are also layered with complex, sociological suggestions.
McCarthy’s work is emphatically structured, yet her panels often boast glimpses of spontaneity and intimacy. The latter is revealed through the distinctive presence of the artist’s hand, whether that be through her paint drips, doodles, handwriting, or fingerprints. These marks serve as subtle “autographs” in which the artist pervades her otherwise formal patterning with an acutely personal awareness. Her intentional use of common material enhances this oscillation between formality and familiarity. Often using found wood, wall space, or office paper as canvas, McCarthy embraces the everyday properties of material to offer a base for her progressively precise compositions.
Click here to view the exhibition page on our website.
What about the use of found materials and different types of paints? Did that emerge as a necessity, as in using whatever was handy, or do you try to mix different things?
"It came out of me not liking to shop, and I don't like new things. It just felt unnecessary to buy canvas and not very inspiring, to be honest. So, when I find wood, I never alter the sides or cut it. Also, I see it as a collaboration. I see all materials as a collaboration. So sometimes we can figure it out, me and the wood, we can figure it out quickly, and sometimes I have pieces of wood that I've had and I love for a decade.
I like the idea of working with something that somebody threw away. Not in an, "Oh, I'm going to make you special. I see you," way. It's not that. It's just more interesting to me, and I think I kind of relate to it. It's in that same way that I don't necessarily like shopping for clothes. I know I have to do it, but I don't want to have to spend a lot of time."
—Alicia McCarthy (excerpted from an interview for Juxtapoz, November 13, 2019)
"I never use paint out of a tube. There are always unique colors. And again, they sort of stand for individuality and how things work together. Not just humans necessarily. To be honest, it's sort of like adaptation, in a way. Well, we are nature, so it's more nature-based, including humans."
—Alicia McCarthy (excerpted from an interview for Juxtapoz, November 13, 2019)
Untitled, 2020, gouache, spray paint, and house paint on wood, 48 x 48 inches
"McCarthy’s slyly inventive, joyously off-kilter abstract paintings, drawings and prints have always had a distinctly punk inflection...
...One would be forgiven for thinking of an outsize summer-camp potholder, but for the dazzling illogic of the warp and weft. If the lines were threads, the thing would fall apart. What holds it together is a kind of electromagnetic energy, a centrifugal force of pigment and pattern....
...the power of her work lies not in competing with history, but in sidestepping it to set her own terms."
—Charles Desmarais on one of Alicia McCarthy's signature weaves ("Alicia McCarthy's Free Spirit on Display at Berggruen," San Francisco Chronicle, March 17, 2017)
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Acrylic pen, house paint and black gesso on wood, in two parts
96 x 96 inches
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Gouache, spray paint, and house paint on wood
48 x 48 inches
SOLD
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Oil pastel, chalk pastel, spray paint and house paint on canvas
60 x 40 inches
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Spray paint, flash paint and house paint on wood
48 x 48 inches
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Color pencil on found wood
11 x 12 3/4 inches
Framed: 15 x 16 3/4 inches
SOLD
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Color pencil, house paint, and spray paint on wood
15 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Color pencil, spray paint and black gesso on wood
48 x 48 inches
SOLD
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2018
Color pencil, spray paint, and house paint on wood
60 x 60 inches
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Color pencil and spray paint on acid-free paper
11 x 14 inches
Framed: 13 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Color pencil and spray paint on found office paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Framed: 11 1/4 x 13 3/4 inches
SOLD
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Color pencil on acid-free paper
10 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches
Framed: 13 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches
SOLD
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled, 2020
Color pencil and spray paint on found office paper
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
Framed: 12 3/8 x 15 3/8 inches
SOLD
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled (3), 2018
Color softground etching with drypoint
Plate: 16 x 20 inches
Sheet: 20 x 24 inches
Framed: 23 1/4 x 27 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches
Edition of 35
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled (2), 2018
Color sugarlift aquatint and aquatint
Plate: 36 x 36 inches
Sheet: 40 x 40 inches
Framed: 44 1/2 x 47 3/4 inches
Edition of 35
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled (Deuce), 2016
Color aquatint and softground etching with drypoint
Plate: 26 x 32 inches
Sheet: 30 1/2 x 26 inches
Framed: 33 1/2 x 39 1/4 inches
Edition of 35
Alicia McCarthy
Z, 2018
Color sugarlift aquatint and aquatint
Plate: 36 x 36 inches
Sheet: 40 x 40 inches
Framed: 44 1/2 x 47 3/4 inches
Edition of 35
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled (1), 2016
Color sugarlift aquatint
Plate: 36 x 40 inches
Sheet: 40 1/2 x 44 inches
Framed: 44 1/2 x 47 3/4 x 1 3/4 inches
Alicia McCarthy, Untitled, 2017 (installed at SFAI Fort Mason campus), Water-based spray paint on marine-grade plywood, 186 x 186 inches
Image courtesy of SFAI