Alicia McCarthy
Alicia McCarthy’s energetic works weave together house paint, coloured pencil, liquid graphite, spray paint, and occasional lyrical or understatedly profound phrases. Drawn to the discarded, everyday items sheared from their original intent are appropriated and abandoned wood is scouted and repurposed as a foundation. Combining various abstract gestures while maintaining a very physical presence, they are subtle, radiant, complex and emanate an immediate and honest energy. Alicia McCarthy is one of the core figures of what is known today as “The Mission School” together with Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Ruby Neri and Chris Johanson, named after San Francisco’s Mission District where the artists lived and worked in the 1990s. The group came together around independent music, skateboarding, graffiti, community driven projects, queer politics and zine publishing, and was perpetuated in the seminal traveling exhibition Beautiful Losers (curated by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike), now also a documentary of the same title.
Born 1969 in Oakland, California, US
Lives and works in Oakland, California, US
EDUCATION
1995
Skowhegan School of Painting/Sculpture, Maine, US
1995
BFA from San Francisco Art Institute, San Fransico, US
2006
MFA from University of California, US
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Alicia McCarthy, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020
Alicia McCarthy, Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, US
Alicia McCarthy, Bim Bam Gallery, Paris, France
2019
Alicia McCarthy, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, US
2018
Alicia McCarthy, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017
Fall, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, US
Alicia McCarthy, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
2016
Snobody, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2015
Alicia McCarthy, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, US
2013
Alicia McCarthy, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, US
2010
Alicia McCarthy, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, US
2008
Alicia McCarthy, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
2006
Hello Forever, Jack Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles, California, US
2005
RARE Gallery, New York, US
2004
RARE Gallery, New York, US
2003
Alicia McCarthy, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA Midway Gallery, St. Paul, Minneapolis, US
2002
RARE Gallery, New York, US
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Alicia McCarthy and Muzae Sesay, pt.2, Oakland, US
Alicia McCarthy and Martha Shaw, pt.2, Oakland, US
Mixed Pickles 12, Ruttkowski;68, New York, US
2022
V1 XX - Twenty Years of V1 Gallery, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2021
It’s Weird to Disappear, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Contact, Bim Bam Gallery, Paris, France
Serra Akboy, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, TX
ICONIC, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, TX
2020
Norman Fucking Rockwell, V1 Gallery II, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
MINE IV, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2019
MINE III, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Trade Syllables, Martinos Pandrossou, Athens, Greece
2018
Alicia McCarthy + Ruby Neri, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California, US
what’s MY line, Transmitter, New York, US
Linear Abstraction, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, Texas, US
Superposition, curated by Johnny Abrahams, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY Terribly Vulnerable and Terribly Hard, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada
2017
MINE, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
About Abstraction: Bay Area Women Painters, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, California, US
SECA Art Award Exhibition, SFMOMA, San Francisco, US
Air 5-Year Anniversary Exhibition, The Lab, San Francisco, US
Margins, Gutters, Bleeds and Creeps, CAPITAL, San Francisco, US
2016
30th Anniversary Exhibition, Attics of My Life, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, US
2015
Patterned Chaos, Cinders, Brooklyn, New York, US
Off the Grid, curated by Susette Min, EN EM Art Space, Sacramento, California, US
2014
Alicia McCarthy + Jenny Sharaf, Johansson Projects, Oakland, Canada
Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California, Oakland Museum of California Art, Oakland, CA Pierogi X X: Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition,Pierogi, New York, US
All of Us Together, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
Way Out West, The Art City Project, San Francisco, California, US
Looking Back: The Eighth White Columns Annual, White Columns, NY, US
New New New Abstraction, curated by Jenny Sharaf, Toomey Tourell Fine Arts, San Francisco, California, US
2013
Artifacts of a Life Lived by the Living (To Live), The Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA Energy That Is All Around: Mission School, Water and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA and Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, US
Independents, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Final San Francisco Show, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA, US
2010
A Mind Meld is a Terrible Thing to Waste, Jack Hanley Gallery,
San Francisco, California, US
2009
In the Fullness of Time: Celebrating Twenty Years, The Luggage Store,
San Francisco, California, US
2007
Jack Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles, California, US
Other Possibilities, Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, California, US
1st Year Show, Worth Ryder Gallery, Berkeley, California, US
2004
Space is the Place, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA III, The Luggage Store, San Francisco, California, US
San Francisco Show, New Image Art, Los Angeles, California, US
SAMA-SAMA-TOGETHER, Yogakarta, Indonesia
10 x 20 10th Anniversary Show, in collaboration with Ruby Neri, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, US
2003
No War, The Luggage Store, San Francisco, CA Goop, New Image Art, Los Angeles, California, US
2002
Boiled and Fried, Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York, US
2001
Widely Unknown, Deitch Projects, New York, US
Pierogi Flat Files, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Fancsico, CA; Dallas Museum, Dallas, TX and Studio One, Brooklyn, New York, US
2000
San Francisco Drawing Show, New Image Art, curated by Alicia McCarthy and Chris Johanson, Los Angeles, California, US
New Work by Chris Johanson and Alicia McCarthy, RARE Gallery, New York, NY Bay Area Now II, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, US
1999
World Five, New Image Art, Los Angeles, California, US
Monster Ballads, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
Bricolage, The Luggage Store, San Francisco, California, US
Three Open Houses, Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA New Image Art, Los Angeles, California, US
1998
Catastrophy, Gallery Lescombe, San Francisco, California, US
Where the Bitter End Meets the Rainbow, with Carolyn Cooley,
San Francisco Arts Commission. Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
SELECTED RESIDENCIES
1999 Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, US
1995 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York, US
SELECTED AWARDS
2017 SECA Art Award, SFMOMA, San Francisco, California, US
2013 Artadia Award, San Francisco, California, US
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2000
San Francisco Drawing Show, curated by Alicia McCarthy and Chris Johanson, New Image Art, Los Angeles, California, US
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2018
McCarthy, Alicia, “Copenhagen Chronical”, published by V1 Gallery / Trojan Horse Press on the occasion of Barry McGee and Alicia McCarthy’s concurrent exhibitions at Eighteen/V1 Gallery
2017
McCarthy, Alicia, “Untitled”, published by V1 Gallery / Trojan Horse Press
Bogojev, “Alicia McCarthy “Fall” @ Jack Hanley Gallery, NYC”, Juxtapoz, 14 November.
2015
Hall, “Reviews: Alicia McCarthy”, Artforum, December.
R. Smith, “Alicia McCarthy Expands Her Illusions in New Work,” The New York Times, 1 October. J. Saltz, “3-Sentance Reviews: Keltie Ferris, for Starters,” Vulture, 23 September.
K. Farr, “Alicia McCarthy,” Juxtapoz, April.
2014
Couzens, “Alicia McCarthy and Jenny Sharaf @ Johansson Projects,” Square Cylinder, 10 August. M. Gavish, “Alicia McCarthy: New Paintings,” SF Art News, 26 July.
Frank, “Exploring the Mythology of the Female California Artist,“ The Huf ngton Post, 15 July. M.S. Chavez, “Outside/Inside: Alicia McCarthy and Jenny Sharaf at Johansson Projects,” New American Paintings, July.
S. Weltman, “Mission School ‘ENERGY THAT IS ALL AROUND’ Grey Art Gallery, NYC,” ClawClaw. com, 9 May.
Johnson, “Prickly but Puppyish in San Francisco: 5 Artists in ‘Energy That Is All Around: Mission School,’” The New York Times, 24 April.
H. Vartanian, “Your ‘Graf ti Looks Like Shit,’ A Historic Letter to Alicia McCarthy,” Hyperallergic.com, 21 April.
Smith, “Looking Back: The Eighth White Columns Annual,” The New York Times, 13 February. A. Russeth, “Looking Back: The Eighth White Columns Annual’ at White Columns,” GalleristNY, 22 January.
J. Hutt, “Looking Back–The 8th White Columns Annual,” Musee Magazine, 21 January.
2013
Grant, “The Mission School Gets Cross Examined,” ArtSlant Street, 31 October.
R. Pritikin, “Mission School @ San Francisco Art Instifute,” Squarecylinder, 29 September. K. Baker, “Mission School ‘Energy’ survey at SF Art Institute,” 27 September.
Trippe, “The Energy That is All Around @SFAI,” Fecal Face Dot Com, 27 September.
K. Chun, “SFAI: Energy That Is All Around,” SFGate, 20 September.
C. Cobb, “San Francisco Art Invades New York,” SF MoMA Open Space Blog, 15 May.
2002
Helfand, “The Mission School,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, 10 May.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia, US
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, US
Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art, Brussels, Belgium American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, US
Facebook Headquarters, Menlo Park, California, US
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, US
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