Press Release - A solo exhibition by Alicia McCarthy
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled
Mixed media on found wood panel
24 x 34.5 inches
2026
a solo exhibition by
Alicia McCarthy
Opening Saturday, November 7th at 6pm
pt.2
1523b Webster St.
Oakland, CA 94612
To receive a preview
info@part2gallery.com
pt. 2 Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Oakland-based artist Alicia McCarthy. While returning to the woven lines and accumulated colors central to her vocabulary, McCarthy grounds her new gestures within deeply saturated fields and stark intervals of space. Deep green, black, brown, and red surround concentrated passages of color, creating works in which brightness seems to emerge from within.
Working on panels that include raw and irregularly shaped found wood, McCarthy builds each painting incrementally, allowing one line to lead into the next. Parallel strokes bend, overlap, turn back on themselves, and gather into forms that are structured without feeling predetermined. Irregular edges and subtle changes in width keep the movement of her hand visible.
Alicia McCarthy
Untitled
Mixed media on wood panel
12 x 16 inches
2026
Several of the new works leave large portions of the surface open, shifting the relationship between McCarthy’s lines and the space around them. These areas are not passive. Small dots, stains, scattered marks, and clouds of sprayed pigment activate the open field, extending the composition beyond its more defined forms. At times, arrangements of lines appear to float within the painted ground, while elsewhere they are anchored by a horizon-like division or extend to the edges of the panel. These shifting relationships change the sense of scale and space, making some forms feel self-contained and others part of something extending beyond the painting.
Across the exhibition, McCarthy's familiar gestures take on a different sense of presence through their relationship to the surrounding space. The paintings maintain a balance between structure and spontaneity, with the irregularities of the surface and the physical boundaries of the panel becoming integral to how each work unfolds.
Alicia McCarthy was born in Oakland, California in 1969. McCarthy received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1994 and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007. She is known for her signature style of vibrantly colored, often woven patterns on mixed media panels. McCarthy has exhibited internationally and has received numerous awards, including the Academy of Art and Sciences, SFMOMA's SECA Art Award, and the Artadia Award. Her work is included in a number of important public and private collections, such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum of California, Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California, MIMA the Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art in Brussels, and the American Academy of Arts & Letters in New York City. The artist lives and works in Oakland. Alicia is represented by pt.2 in Oakland and V1 in Copenhagen.