The second issue of my new comic “The Novice” is out now—20 pages, 8 x 5.25” saddle-stitched 5-color risograph zine. Available for $10 in-store at my own web shop.
The Novice No. 1 /
The first issue of my new comic “The Novice” is out now—20 pages, 8 x 5.25” saddle-stitched 4-color risograph zine. Available for $10 in-store at Desert Island, Pure Folly Books, Quimby’s, Dale Zine, as well as 50 Watts Books and my own web shop.
Commonplaces and Curiosities at Grinnell Library /
Commonplaces and Curiosities, installation view.
Commonplaces and Curiosities: Sketchbooks 2013–2021 is on view at the historic Grinnell Library in Wappingers Falls, NY, October 2022. From the press release:
These sketchbooks—representing eight years of Sean McCarthy’s thoughts and observations—contain drawings, notes, and studies, as well as quotations and paraphrases of conceptual inspirations. Since only small portions of the contents can be visible at any given time, the artist will turn the pages periodically to create new displays throughout the month.
Metafiguration at Tops Gallery, Memphis /
Pastoral scene, 2022. Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 22 x 28 inches.
Pastoral Scene will be included in Metafiguration, a group show curated by Kevin Ford and Sean McElroy at Tops Gallery in Memphis, TN, opening 7/23/22 through 9/23/22.
Living, Breathing at Essex Flowers /
Living, Breathing
March 11–April 9, 2022
Opening reception Saturday, March 12, 2022
Essex Flowers is pleased to present Living, Breathing, a solo exhibition of new drawings by Sean McCarthy.
The drawings in Living, Breathing feature hybrid creatures whose forms result from automatic improvisation in response to an algorithmically derived prompt. Unlike the increasingly overdetermined and corrosive algorithmic manipulation of human consciousness by digital technology, here the practice is generative. Each drawing represents a state of real-time invention; an expression of thought and feeling with little rehearsal or polish. The figures are captured in a state of flux—both in the openness and fluidity of the drawn forms as well as the nascent actions and attitudes they gesture toward. Each creature asks us to connect with it not as an inanimate specimen, but as a living organism with its own affect and emotional valence—activating our capacity for empathy as it relates to the other as well as to the unsettled parts of ourselves. Shown unframed, their presentation reinscribes the vulnerability of the work.
Bathers at Fish Island Gallery /
A new solo project, Bathers, opens at Fish Island Gallery this month.
Fish Island Gallery occupies a small deserted island located in the Long Island Sound off the coast of southwestern Connecticut. The island is only accessible by boat and the installations held there physically exist for one day only. However, they live on in photo and video documentation on the Fish Island Gallery website and Instagram page.
Many thanks to Fish Island Gallery Director Kevin Ford!
Cut-Ups at Essex Flowers /
Jamie Chan and Sean McCarthy, installation view, Cut-Ups, Essex Flowers, 2021.
Cut-Ups
July 10–August 8, 2021
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 10, 12–6pm
Lisha Bai / Jamie Chan / Jonathan Ehrenberg / Tamar Ettun / E. E. Ikeler / Antonia Kuo / Pooneh Maghazehe / Sean McCarthy / Camilla Padgitt-Coles / Janine Polak / Rufus Tureen / Linnea Vedder
Essex Flowers, 19 Monroe Street, NYC.
Gallery hours: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12-6 PM, and by appointment
No Longer, Not Yet at Essex Flowers /
Meena Hasan, still from Origin Story: The LobsterRhinoceros (after Dürer), stop motion animation, 2012
November 28 - December 20, 2020
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 28, 12-6pm
Animations by Hannah Frank / Trenton Doyle Hancock / Meena Hasan / Aidan Koch / Ruth Rodriguez / Kiyomi Quinn Taylor
Curated by Sean McCarthy
A cyclops turns its gaze in a full circle. Hills and mountains around an artist’s home in the Mojave Desert appear in a sequence of life drawings. A demon avatar cries out in pain. A lobster turns into a rhinoceros. A woman crushes garlic in homage to her grandmother. An artist and his creation have a symbiotic meeting in the woods.
Essex Flowers, 19 Monroe Street, NYC.
Gallery hours: Saturdays and Sundays from 12-6 PM and by appointment
Hiss My Way Down at Essex Flowers /
Reach, 2020. Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 22 x 28 inches.
My new solo exhibition Hiss My Way Down will open Saturday 9/5 at Essex Flowers in New York City and will run until Sunday 9/27. There will be a socially distanced closing reception 12–6pm on 9/27.
Update, 9/18: It’s an Artforum Must See show.
Together, A Part with Craig Taylor in the Essex Flowers Window Box, NYC, July 15–24, 2020 /
Sean McCarthy and Craig Taylor’s works both explore grotesque figuration, the former with a graphic vocabulary and the latter through painterly abstraction. This exhibition features four small paintings from each in conversation with one another.
The Essex Flowers Window Box is a public-facing exhibition venue occupying our 19 Monroe Street storefront window. The enclosed vitrine allows us to stage gallery exhibitions while observing social distancing guidelines. The Window Box is viewable from the street 24 hours a day with frequently rotated shows that can be enjoyed by passersby and gallery goers alike. We invite you to stop by anytime and check out our programming for this new venue from the street while wearing a mask and practicing appropriate social distancing. More about each artists and each installation at essexflowers.us
Envelope at Drawer /
I have a small painting in a group exhibition called Envelope at Drawer until August 9:
Envelope
Curated by Essex Flowers
Online July 20 – August 9
Ally Caple, Carolina Fusilier, EJ Hauser, Heather Benjamin, Ilana Savdie, Janine Polak, Jessica Langley, Jonathan Ehrenberg, Linnea Vedder, Maria Rapoport, Mira Dancy, Mónica Palma, Paul Branca, Rachel Domm, Rachel Eulena Williams, Ruby Sky Stiler, Rufus Tureen, Sean McCarthy, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Stephanie McMahon, and Timothy H. Lai.
Like Pablo Neruda, I once participated in a gift exchange with a stranger through a hole in a fence. Shifting forms looked through the lattice. I remember her hands resting, locking eyes, and folding you like an envelope. The power of the symbol is held within tightly woven waves, like the queen of cups hidden inside a deck of playing cards. I tried to tell you that this embrace is exhausting, but soaked with sun our intimate systems of two forms combine.
100% of Essex Flowers’ and Drawer’s proceeds will be donated to The Loveland Foundation. The Loveland Therapy Fund gives access to high quality mental health services to Black women and girls.
Print sale to benefit the National Lawyer's Guild /
Sean McCarthy and Craig Taylor are offering a two-sided collaborative screenprint in an edition of 20 for sale, the artists’ proceeds from which will benefit the National Lawyer’s Guild. This sale is held in conjunction with their two-person exhibition Together, A Part, in the Essex Flowers Window Box July 15–24 at 19 Monroe St, NYC.
Sean McCarthy and Craig Taylor, Untitled (Heads), 2017. Two-sided screenprint on blue-gray paper, 24 by 18 inches, edition of 20.
$100 + $10 shipping. Please inquire here.
Your Huddled Masses book /
I have a drawing in a new book called Your Huddled Masses, edited by Steph Costello—all proceeds will benefit the Florence Project, which provides free legal and social services to detained immigrants in Arizona.
Geo Necro at Ada Gallery /
Three of my drawings will be included in Geo Necro, a group exhibition curated by Ryan Browning and Casey Jex Smith, opening Friday, May 6 at Ada Gallery in Richmond VA.