Returning for her third solo exhibition at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen, Alicia McCarthy is currently showing her latest body of abstract, intertwined paintings and urban-rustic explorations of the nature of community.
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The Oakland-based artist’s work lies at the intersection of numerous subcultures including graffiti, skateboarding, folk art, social activism and punk. The latter’s ethos of ‘unity’, encompassing both meanings of the word, is particularly apparent; within the paintings, the threads are each rendered in different colors, underscoring their singular individualism, but they all share similar physical characteristics, which is suggestive of a collective coexistence and sense of solidarity. There is a strong social connotation to her large scale weave paintings which act as a vehicle to probe and explore the nature of community. The points where the kaleidoscope of colours intersect are crucially important and reflect the meetings, collaborations and conflicts of everyday life where one person meets another. Her colors, like individuals, influence and change one another and together combine to form something greater than themselves.
Wooden panels, cardboard and latex paint used in the show have been scavenged from dumpsters and roadsides. At times, as with the double-helix on red and yellow, the response to these recycled materials is unpolished and reductive, suggesting a particularly acidic response to the rampant consumerist culture that rejected those materials in the first place. While at other times the works appear as prismatic and almost euphoric rays of coloured light which seem to celebrate their past and the urban landscape in which they were found.
The exhibition continues at V1 Gallery, Flæsketorvet 69, 1711 Copenhagen, Denmark until 28th May 2021.
Photo credit: V1 Gallery