Penny McCarthy

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

Subject area

Extended Degree and Postgraduate Subject Group

Courses

MA and MFA Fine Art
BA (Hons) Fine Art

Modules

Art Practice
Art
Art and its Publics
Postgraduate Art Context (Drawing from the Archive)
Art Context 2 (Art and the Body)
Gravity Lectures

Gravity (ongoing)
Render (current)
Sala delle Asse (current)

Gravity: Buckets and Jewels
Transmission
Shadow Book
Nothing is Forever - Lullaby Constellation
Time will darken
Penelope/Odyssey

Gravity is a collaboration with Becky Shaw and Andrew Sneddon
Render is a collaboration with Becky Shaw, Andrew Sneddon, Gary Simmonds and other staff

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/

External examiner at the University of the Creative Arts (BA (Hons) Painting, School of Film, Media and Performing Arts, Open College of the Arts)

Current

Louise Finney
Lee Ford
Clare Massey
Jeanine Griffin
Sarah Smizz

Completed

Louise Wilson
Brian Eccleshall
Jerome Harrington