Alicia McCarthy

Alicia McCarthy’s mixed-media abstractions spring from the well of her graffiti-writing days in San Francisco’s streets, which spilled over onto school lockers while she worked on her BFA at San Francisco Art Institute in 1994, earning her a scolding letter from the dean. She holds an MFA from the University of California at Berkeley, and her solo exhibitions include Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, and the Berkeley Art Museum. McCarthy has received various accolades, including a 2017 SECA Art Award and exhibition at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as residencies with Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Public collections with works by the artist include Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art, Brussels; American Academy of Arts & Letters, New York; Facebook Headquarters, Menlo Park, California; and Oakland Museum of California. Twenty-five years after being reprimanded for vandalizing SFAI, McCarthy was commissioned to paint a large-scale piece in the school’s graduate center.