Kim McCarty


Kim McCarty is an artist and watercolor painter living and working in Los Angeles, California. Her work has been exhibited in over twenty solo exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. She often works in large formats using layers of monochromatic colors.

Career and work

McCarty works in a wet-on-wet watercolor technique, normally associated with oil painting, in which the paint is applied to a moistened sheet of paper. She began working in the watercolor medium in 1993, after her studio was destroyed by a fire and was unable to find a space with proper ventilation for oil paint. A 2015 review by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp notes that McCarty is known best for paintings of young, unclothed men and women; it describes her work in that show—images of rabbits and dogs—as unpredictable and spontaneous.

Education

1988 University of California, Los Angeles, M.F.A.. 1980 Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, B.F.A..

Professional life

Solo exhibitions

2015
2013
2012
  • David Klein Gallery, Detroit MI
  • Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
2009
  • Lightbox Gallery, Los Angeles, California
  • David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI
2006
  • Kim McCarty, cherry and martin, Los Angeles, California
2005
  • Kim McCarty, Briggs Robinson Gallery, New York, NY
2003
  • Under Glass, cherrydelosreyes, Los Angeles, California
  • Watercolors, Santa Barbara Contemporary Art Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
  • Kim McCarty, Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2002
  • Kim McCarty, Rebecca Ibel, Columbus, Ohio
  • Kim McCarty, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna, CA
2000
  • Kim McCarty, Recent Paintings, De Chiara/ Stewart, New York, NY
1999
  • Kim McCarty, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna, CA
  • Kim McCarty, Ochi Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
1998
  • Drawings, Works on Paper Inc. Los Angeles, California
1997
  • Helen, Deanna Izen Miller Gallery, Venice, CA
1996
  • Recent Paintings, Sharon Truax Fine Art, Venice, CA
1992
  • Recent Paintings, Janie Beggs Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Group exhibitions

2014
  • Watercolor, Griffin Fine Art, London, England
  • New York Armory, David Klein Gallery, New York
2012
  • Wet, Kim McCarty/Natalie Franks, Eden Rock Gallery, St Barthes,
  • New York Armory Modern, David Klein Gallery, New York
  • Fresh, MOCA, Los Angeles, California
  • Selling Sex Show, studio, London, England
  • Twisted Sister, Dodge Gallery, New York, NY
2011
  • California Contemporary, Scott White Gallery, San Diego CA
  • Inaugural Exhibition, Heiner Contemporary Gallery, Washington DC
  • Eve, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, California
  • Art Platform, David Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2010
  • Dis-a-pear, Island Weiss Gallery, New York, NY
  • Fresh Figures and Abstraction, Scott White Gallery, San Diego, CA
  • View to the Soul, Portraiture Old and New, Heather James Gallery, Palm Desert,
  • Medium is the Message, Peninsula School of Art, Fish Creek, WI
2009
  • Blue, Blue, Kim Light/Lightbox Gallery, Culver City, CA
  • Draw the Line, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
  • Dillitantes, Divas and Dandies, Gavlak Projects, Palm Beach, FL
  • Watercolorland, Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2008
2007
  • Empty Nest, The Changing Face of Childhood in Art, 1880 to the present,
  • Nathan A Bernstein Gallery, New York, November 1 to January 12, 2008
  • Hammer Contemporary Collection: Part 2, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California
  • The Unexpected Watercolor, Lee Center for the Arts, Seattle University, Seattle, WA
2006
  • 100 artists, 100 watercolors, Jeannie Freilich Fine Art, New York
  • August Light, Great Barrington, MA
  • Figuratively Speaking, Part 2, Elika Wimmer Gallery, New York, NY
  • LA: Now, Dominique Fiat Galerie, Paris, France
  • Portrait Show, Pharmaka Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2005
  • Contemporary Erotic Drawings, DiverseWorks, Houston, Texas
  • Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT
  • Liquid Los Angeles: Currents of Contemporary Watercolor Painting Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA
  • The Unexpected Watercolor, The Art Gym, Marylhurst University, Portland, OR
  • Painted Ladies, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA
2004
  • Drawn to the Present, Pace University Gallery, Pleasantville, NY
  • What's Doin?, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
  • Summer Group Show, Cherrydelosreyes, Los Angeles, California
  • New Talent and Familiar Faces, Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, California
  • LA Woman, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA
  • Expect: Art, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY
  • Behind Door Nine, UCSB University Art Museum, Santa Barbara. CA
2003
  • International Paper, UCLA Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California,
  • Smoking Pencils Rolling Papers, Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, California
  • The Great Drawing Show 1550–2003, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, California
  • Wet Paint, Brea Art Gallery, Brea, California Biosystems, USC Institute of Genetic Medicine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California
  • Multiple Expressions, Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2002
  • What a Painting Can Do, Hayworth Gallery, Los Angeles, California
  • Toyland, Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon
  • A Thousand Clowns, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2001
2000
  • H2O, Works On Paper, Inc. Los Angeles, California
  • For Example, Acuna Hansen, Los Angeles, California
  • Paintings, Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
  • Exhibition, New Jersey Center For The Arts, Summit, NJ
  • Certain Things: Unlikely Treasures, Elsa Mott Ives Gallery, New York, NY
  • MOCA Auction, MOCA, Los Angeles, California
1999
  • Works on Paper, Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
  • Traces New Drawing, Katrina Traywick Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1997
  • LA Current: A Media Fusion, UCLA Gallery at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
  • The Painted Image, Deanna Izen Miller Gallery, Venice, CA
  • Group Exhibition, Sharon Truax Fine Art, Venice, CA
  • LA Current: The Female Perspective, UCLA Gallery / Armand Hammer Museum, L.A.
1995
  • LA Woman, Lutz Hegenbarth, Cologne, Germany

Selected public and private collections