Summary
Penny McCarthy works primarily with drawing and text. Her work is presented internationally in a variety of contexts: in museums and galleries, at conferences, and as live projects and publications. Her work has been supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England and Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Recent projects have been shown in Ulysse(s): L’autre mer, at the FRAC, Rennes, France; Nothing is Forever, South London Gallery; and Material Truths at Site Gallery, Sheffield in 2017. Macchia, a digital index of works is accessible online. Her picture essay Time will darken paper was commissioned for Esopus (New York) issue 21, 'Mirror', a chapter in Memories of the Future (eds. Deborah Jaffe and Stephen Wilson, 2017) and On The Image at Venice International University, San Servolo, Venice (2017).
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About
Penny McCarthy (1960, in Washington DC, USA) works primarily with drawing and text. Following study in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University, Penny began her career as a Henry Moore Fellow in Drawing. Her work is presented internationally in a variety of contexts: in museums and galleries, at conferences, and as live projects and publications. Her work has been supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England and Arts and Humanities Research Council. Recent projects have been shown in Ulysse(s): L’autre mer, at the FRAC, Rennes, France; Nothing is Forever, South London Gallery; and Material Truths at Site Gallery, Sheffield in 2017. Macchia, a digital index of works is accessible online. Her picture essay Time will darken paper was commissioned for Esopus (New York) issue 21, 'Mirror', a chapter in Memories of the Future (eds. Deborah Jaffe and Stephen Wilson, 2017) and On The Image at Venice International University, San Servolo, Venice (2017).
Penny’s practice involves re-writing, re-drawing, re-constructing to make images. Her research practice is intrinsically concerned with the ways we engage with knowledge and the structures of its acquisition. Recent projects have developed from a fascination with online archives and by the ways that such bureaucratic infrastructures make connections between the individual and the culture giving coherence to our picture of the world. This interest has prompted a series of works that re-materialise and re-situate digital documents from archives that refer to half-forgotten events and seem to index a lost or unreliable past.
Through her practice, Penny has explored the investigative potential of drawing to consider the imaginative space of fiction in a series of pencil-drawn copies of pages from writers such as WG Sebald, Jorge Luis Borges, Fernando Pessoa, Nabokov and others. This merging of fiction, visual genres and methods creates an intersection between cultural context and knowledge production.
Currently she making a series of fragile, often incomplete, works that use drawing to engage with art works from different periods of history. This project opens a dialogue between works of art across time and acts as a means to examine notions of obsolescence, permanence and legacy.
Specialist areas of interest
Drawing, writing, archives, literature, history, time, memory, the image, material processes, visual thinking
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Teaching
Subject area
Extended Degree and Postgraduate Subject Group
Courses
MA and MFA Fine Art
BA (Hons) Fine ArtModules
Art Practice
Art
Art and its Publics
Postgraduate Art Context (Drawing from the Archive)
Art Context 2 (Art and the Body)
Gravity Lectures -
Research
Gravity (ongoing)
Render (current)
Sala delle Asse (current)Gravity: Buckets and Jewels
Transmission Shadow Book
Nothing is Forever - Lullaby Constellation Time will darken
Penelope/OdysseyGravity is a collaboration with Becky Shaw and Andrew Sneddon
Render is a collaboration with Becky Shaw, Andrew Sneddon, Gary Simmonds and other staff -
Publications
Journal articles
Mccarthy, P. (2015). Look no further this is it. FE 365 30 Texts for 30 Years, 26. http://www.forcedentertainment.com/notebook-entry/fe365-penny-mccarthy/
Mccarthy, P. (2014). Time will darken paper. ESOPUS, 21, 121-136. http://www.esopusmag.com/
Conference papers
Mccarthy, P. (2017). Macchia: mirroring images in the digital domain. In Eighth International Conference on the Image, Venice International University, Venice, Italy, 2017 - 1 November 2017. http://ontheimage.com/about/history/2017-conference
Mccarthy, P. (2017). My Fakes and Counterfeits : presenting on on-going workexamining the archaeology of the facsimile. In Internal Nebular Talks Programme, Wirksworth Festival, 16 September 2017. http://www.haarlemartspace.co.uk/projects
Mccarthy, P. (2013). Some notes on drawing and reading in the form of a common place book. In Words/Worlds, Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster University, 9 May 2013.
Mccarthy, P., & OConnor, T. (2010). Stealing Voices. In Hospitality: Transmission, Sheffield Hallam University, 1 July 2010. http://www.transmission.uk.com/
Mccarthy, P. (2014). Mirror: Time will darken paper, a picture essay examining mimesis through autographic practice as a way to transform our understanding of digital material. M.
Book chapters
Mccarthy, P. (2017). Mirror : time will darken paper. In Jaffe, D., & Wilson, S. (Eds.) Memories of the Future. (pp. 105-128). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang: http://doi.org/10.3726/b11142
Mccarthy, P. (2011). Your space flight is leaving. In Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy. (pp. 1-2). Sheffield: Site Gallery: http://www.sitegallery.org/archives/3576
Mccarthy, P., & Etchells, T. (2010). Dialogue 2009. In Corris, M., Joseph-Lester, J., & Kivland, S. (Eds.) Hospitality. (pp. 257-272). London: ARTWORDS: http://www.transmission.uk.com/
Books
Kivland, S. (Ed.). (2018). La Biblioteca de Babel. London, UK: Ma Biblioteque.
Theses / Dissertations
Eccleshall, B.D. (2016). Reiterative drawing as translation : Making, resistance, and the negotiated encounter. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Mccarthy, P., Kivland, S., & Brown, C.
Harrington, J.J. (2015). Process made visible - in and outside the object. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Shaw, B., Mccarthy, P., & Sneddon, A.
Internet Publications
Mccarthy, P. (2020). Esopus Magazine: Drawing Invitational. [paint, paper]. https://www.esopus.org/web_pages/view/42
Mccarthy, P. (2020). Esopus Magazine: Drawing Invitational. [paint, paper]. https://www.esopus.org/web_pages/view/42
Mccarthy, P. (2017). Macchia: working between two materialities. [digital app]. https://macchia-2017.herokuapp.com/
Artefacts
Mccarthy, P. (2019). Was ist aura? [paint, paper, printed media].
Mccarthy, P. (2017). The Art Classcommissioned drawing for Sheffield Institute of Art. [Drawing (pencil on paper)].
Mccarthy, P. (2013). Ulysses (Final Page). [graphite on paper]. http://www.derwent-artprize.com/ulysses-final-page
Exhibitions
Mccarthy, P. (2013). Ulysses (L’autre mer). [artefact]. FRAC Bretagne, Rennes France. http://www.fracpaca.org/article.php3?id_article=1952
Mccarthy, P. (2013). Ulysses (L’autre mer). [artefact]. FRAC Bretagne, Rennes France. http://www.fracpaca.org/article.php3?id_article=1952
Mccarthy, P. (2015). Personal Histories. [Artists book]. Redland Museum and Gallery, Cleveland, Queensland, Australia. http://personalhistoriesartistbooks.weebly.com/
Mccarthy, P. (2017). Folder. [Art works - pencil drawings and digital work]. Site Gallery Sheffield. http://www.sitegallery.org/archives/10222
Mccarthy, P. (2017). Folder. [Art works - pencil drawings and digital work]. Site Gallery Sheffield. http://www.sitegallery.org/archives/10222
Mccarthy, P. (2016). The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2016 exhibition. [exhibition with catalogue]. Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, London SE1 and touring.
Mccarthy, P. (n.d.). Folder. [creative output]. Site Gallery, Sheffield. http://www.sitegallery.org/
Mccarthy, P. (2018). Aura (1). Attercliffe TM.
Mccarthy, P. (2018). Liquid Crystal Display. [art works for exhibition with accompanying book]. Site Gallery. https://www.sitegallery.org/exhibition/liquid-crystal-display/
Mccarthy, P. (2018). Liquid Crystal Display. [art works for exhibition with accompanying book]. Site Gallery. https://www.sitegallery.org/exhibition/liquid-crystal-display/
McCarthy, P. (2019). Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2019. [Drawing]. Trinity Buoy Wharf, touring to Salisbury Museum and The Gallery, DeMontort University. http://trinitybuoywharfdrawingprize.drawingprojects.uk/index.php/news
McCarthy, P. (2019). Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2019. [Drawing]. Trinity Buoy Wharf, touring to Salisbury Museum and The Gallery, DeMontort University. http://trinitybuoywharfdrawingprize.drawingprojects.uk/index.php/news
Mccarthy, P., & Griffin, J. (2019). A Strange Weave of Time and Space. [drawing and printed paper]. Site Gallery, Sheffield and Usher Galler, Lincoln. https://astrangeweave.org/
Images
Mccarthy, P. (2010). Lullaby constellation. [Exhibition of Drawing (site specific)].
Presentations
Mccarthy, P. (2015). DETAIL. Presented at: Sixth International Conference on The Image : Media Materiality: Towards Critical Economies of “New” Media, Clark Kerr Conference Center, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA, 2015
Other publications
Mccarthy, P., Babbage, F., OConnor, T., Stenner, R., & Glendinning, H. (2019). BEWARE THE CAT (film). https://vimeo.com/347112463
Mccarthy, P. (2018). Beware the Cat. https://bewarethecat.home.blog/
Griffin, J., & Mccarthy, P. (2017). Project for an Exhibition, curated by Jeanine Griffin, Bloc Projects, Sheffield, 4th – 5th July 2017.
Griffin, J., & Mccarthy, P. (2017). Project for an Exhibition, curated by Jeanine Griffin, Bloc Projects, Sheffield, 4th – 5th July 2017.
Mccarthy, P. (2014). Time will darken paper. New York: The Esopus Foundation: http://www.esopusmag.com/
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Other activities
External examiner at the University of the Creative Arts (BA (Hons) Painting, School of Film, Media and Performing Arts, Open College of the Arts)
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Postgraduate supervision
Current
Louise Finney
Lee Ford
Clare Massey
Jeanine Griffin
Sarah SmizzCompleted
Louise Wilson
Brian Eccleshall
Jerome Harrington