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Alicia Mccarthy's Compositions Comprise Intricate Communities Of Alicia McCarthy’s compositions comprise but spent time on campus. Though their intricate communities of lines, colors, individual interests extended beyond and forms. They are constructed through the group, including into queer and punk a repetitive process of seemingly simple communities and small experimental art mark making, a sensitivity to hue and venues, Johanson, Kilgallen, McCarthy, pigment density, and an openness to the and McGee would be forever linked by distinct character of each gesture. An critic Glen Helfand’s characterization of accessible quality permeates her humble them as progenitors of a craft and folk materials and vibrant, organic geom- art, DIY aesthetic rooted in the streets of etries, whether painted or drawn. The San Francisco’s Mission District.3 decisions she makes in the studio reflect how she navigates everyday life, as well These communities have shaped as the many Bay Area histories that she McCarthy’s collaborative sensibility has been part of since the early 1990s. and preference for modest materials. Focused on the act of making, she Best known as a key figure in the legen- has long eschewed overwrought dary Mission School, McCarthy has been presentations. At the beginning of her associated with a long lineage of artist- career she often installed her paintings based communities. At Humboldt State and drawings in the corners of galleries, University in Arcata, California, she met included intentionally misspelled words, Harrell Fletcher and Virgil Shaw, who and left her work unsigned. “Disturbed ignited her interest in working beyond by the amount of waste”4 and naturally gallery walls and strengthened her drawn to things that are cast off, she connections in the Bay Area. Later she frequently took found objects—many was influenced by several generations made of wood—and covered them with of artists who studied and taught at house paint, which she also applied the San Francisco Art Institute, including directly to walls both inside and outside Joan Brown, David Park, Manuel Neri, of galleries. She treated exhibitions, Richard Shaw, and Irène Pijoan, for whom even solo shows, as spaces to share with she was a studio assistant.1 Jay DeFeo’s other artists. Today McCarthy still applies enigmatic painting The Rose (1958–66) house paint to wood surfaces, but now was hidden behind a wall at the school; she buys new panels, high-quality colored according to McCarthy, “You couldn’t be pencils, and water-based spray paint. She a student or a painter without feeling its continues to embrace drips and splatters intensity like a haunting ghost-like pres- and to incorporate her friends’ work into ence.”2 She became fast friends with fel- her exhibitions, though in smaller quanti- low students Ruby Neri and Barry McGee, ties. Her installation at SFMOMA features as well as with Margaret Kilgallen and drawings by ORFN (Aaron Curry), who Chris Johanson, who weren’t enrolled passed away from cancer in December 01 — Alicia McCarthy, Untitled, 2017. Gouache, latex paint, and spray paint on wood, 60 × 60 in. (152.4 × 152.4 cm). Collection of Joachim and Nancy Hellman Bechtle 2016. McCarthy’s inclusion of his art cel- her lines and colors. Her hues are always in her surroundings: her use of wood ebrates his prolific and deeply influential unique: a pigment is never used directly connects to San Francisco’s wood-based presence in the Bay Area. from the tube but is mixed just before architecture; her palette and rainbow-like application and determined by the tone patterns draw on the light and atmo- McCarthy’s process mirrors the creativ- that preceded it. She explains, “Colors sphere of the area. She has said, “I want ity and individuality celebrated by the next to each other vibe so differently. my work to reflect all the beauty and many communities she has been part You could immediately go in a different pain of everyday life. All woven together of. She has found infinite freedom and direction.” 5 Her structured practice thus and interconnecting to create [images] variation within a rule-based practice, allows her to effectively experiment with based in line and color.”6 Made up of the forming intricate patterns through basic juxtaposition and density. Careful and people and places around her, McCarthy tropes of grids, what she calls “weaves,” considered, her paintings and drawings translates the energy and emotion she curves akin to rainbows, and color blocks are reminiscent of works that employ feels into a sincerely human form of or bars. One could spend hours trying modernist color theory—particularly abstraction. to determine how she assembles them. those of Bauhaus artists Anni and Josef —Jenny Gheith She approaches both her “positive” Albers—yet her choices are instinctual textile-like images, with filled-in lines and resolutely nonacademic. (see fig. 01), and “negative” weaves, with filled-in ground (see cover), the same McCarthy brings an off-kilter quality way: beginning in the middle and expand- not only to her palette but also to her ing outward, interlacing strands over and lines, which never feel precious or overly under until she reaches a point near, but worked. They are determined as they not at, the edge. For her SECA installation meander from one end of the support McCarthy introduced a new support into to the other or as they form a section her repertoire—interested in translucency, of a curved band. She highlights the she translated a combination of her imperfections of her organic gestures negative and positive weaves onto large and does not use tape as a guide. Her sheets of Plexiglas. Unable to adjust mis- sprayed marks have an inherent fuzzi- steps on this unforgiving surface, she had ness as they intermingle, often with more to learn quickly how her usual materials empty space around them than her would react to an unfamiliar ground. painted lines. When one composition is finished, she removes it from her An undeniable energy imbues McCarthy’s studio as she proceeds on to the next. work—a buoyancy that bursts and continually shifts across the surface. She McCarthy’s sequenced taxonomies builds up the backgrounds of her painted provide solace from the chaos of the compositions over several days to set outside world through their focused the right stage for the interactions of repetition. Yet she also finds inspiration 1 4 McCarthy also cites the Alicia McCarthy, interview influence of Katherine by the author, January 24, Sherwood, her professor 2017. Exhibition files for while studying for her MFA at 2017 SECA Art Award: Alicia the University of California, McCarthy, Lindsey White, Berkeley. Liam Everett, K.r.m. Mooney, Sean McFarland, SFMOMA 2 Department of Painting and San Francisco Art Institute, Sculpture and Department Energy That Is All Around, of Photography. exh. cat. (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2014), 22. 5 Ibid. 3 See Glen Helfand, 6 “The Mission School: Alicia McCarthy SECA San Francisco’s Street application, July 1, 2016. Artists Deliver Their Exhibition files for Neighborhood to the Art 2017 SECA Art Award: Alicia World,” San Francisco Bay McCarthy, Lindsey White, Guardian, August 7, 2002. Liam Everett, K.r.m. Mooney, Sean McFarland, SFMOMA Department of Painting and Sculpture and Department of Photography. 02 (bottom) — Alicia McCarthy, 03 (top) — Alicia McCarthy, Untitled, 2016. Colored pencil, Untitled, 2015. Colored pencil, latex paint, and spray paint on latex paint, and spray paint on wood, 48 × 48 in. (121.9 × 121.9 cm). wood, two joined panels, overall: Collection of Cassandra and 96 × 96 in. (243.8 × 243.8 cm). Paul Hazen Private collection Excerpted from an interview How did you transition from art school conducted at McCarthy’s studio in Oakland on to these other scenes? January 24, 2017. It was a very natural transition. There wasn’t a preciousness about what we were doing, where we were doing it, or what materials we were using. It wasn’t Erin O’Toole: It seems like community about a particular end. I didn’t necessar- has always been important to your ily go paint on the street wanting other practice. When was the first time you people to see it. It wasn’t about showing. In Conversation In Conversation with Alicia McCarthy felt like you were part of one? It was just an activity that was thrilling Alicia McCarthy: The first time I felt, and freaky and fun—and daring and “These are my people,” was at Humboldt athletic and scary. State University. That was where I met Harrell Fletcher, Virgil Shaw, Cleveland There was more to it than just the thrill Leffler, and Chela Fielding. I felt so factor, though, wasn’t there? invigorated and active. That was also It was about the act of doing it, and it when I started painting on walls outside. was also a way of digesting the urban environment. To be honest, I’m better Did you meet them in class? served out in the mountains. I think that I met them through the art department. comes from being a sensitive person. I met Virgil through a mutual friend, The amount of harshness outside and it was through him, later on, when every door here is pretty brutal. To me, we were both at the San Francisco Art everything in the city is always aggres- Institute (SFAI), that I met Ruby Neri. sively blaring some kind of information They knew each other through their that’s not for the good of all. People seem fathers, Manuel Neri and Richard Shaw. to take that for granted, and individual Virgil’s whole family had a huge voices get lost. A lot of people criticize influence on me. graffiti because they don’t want to look at it, but I love that it’s an individual Have you ever actively sought making a mark.
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