Reader in Fine Art Penny McCarthy
Reader in Fine Art
- Department of Art and Design
- Art Design and Media Research Centre
- Culture and Creativity Research Institute
Summary
I am an artist and academic with a particular interest in the materiality and experience of drawing. Central to my work is an interest in understanding phenomena through detail, exacting slowness and concentrated observation.
My research is presented internationally in a variety of contexts: in exhibitions, conferences, and as live projects and publications. I have had awards from the Evelyn Williams Drawing Prize, Henry Moore Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England and AHRC. Recent projects include Liquid Crystal Display (Site Gallery & MIMA), Picture Room (NY). Beware the Cat, a research collaboration toured theatres including RSC Stratford (2019).
About
I am an artist and academic with a particular interest in the materiality and experience of drawing.
My research is presented internationally in a variety of contexts: in museums and galleries, at conferences, and as live projects and publications. My work has been supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England and Arts and Humanities Research Council. Recent projects have been for Liquid Crystal Display at Site Gallery, Sheffield and MIMA, Middlesborough, Picture Room in New York, and Beware the Cat, a research collaboration touring theatres including RSC Stratford in 2019.
I received the Evelyn Williams Drawing Prize at the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize in 2019, and I am currently working towards a solo exhibition at Hastings Contemporary opening in 2022.
As Reader in Fine Art and Course Leader for Postgraduate Fine Art, I teach across PG Fine Art and lead studio modules alongside Drawing from the Archive, an elective module that explores drawing as fieldwork, as a form to witness history and examine the archive. I also contribute to BA Fine Art though lectures on visual thinking and artist’s archival practices.
My teaching evolves constantly through the impetus and energy of the students. Supporting artists at all stages to build their work is at the core of my practice. This aspect of my work focuses on connecting people through platforms that create empathy, community, discourse and communication.
I convene the Gravity Lecture series with Gary Simmonds and Andrew Sneddon. Gravity invites guest artists to present their own work in response to changing themes that reflect current debates. We work in partnership with Museums Sheffield and also regularly extend invitations to collaborators from other universities. Our guests have included: Lubaina Himid, Ian Kiaer, Jamie Crewe, Rebecca Fortnum and Jeremy Deller.
In 2021, I initiated oHPo (Old Head Post Office) a radio station for the art school that grew from conversations about how to be together during the pandemic. oHPo is a collaboration across the PhD and MFA Fine Art communities.
I am a member of Sheffield’s Making Ways Visual Arts Panel, working on projects that raise the visibility of visual art through a collective vision for arts in the city. I am currently collaborating on plans for the next Art Sheffield exhibition, as well as a research project with Sheffield University mapping visual art activity in the region.
Specialist areas of interest
Drawing, writing, archives, literature, history, time, memory, the image, material processes, visual thinking
Teaching
College of Social Sciences and Arts
Subject area
Fine Art
Courses
- MFA Fine Art
- Postgraduate Research
Modules
- Art (MFA Fine Art)
- Drawing from the Archive (Art Contexts)
- Art Practice
Research
Throughout my career my research and my practice have been guided by an interest in the visceral experience of drawing. Reading and writing are incredibly important to me, but I need a sense of the tangible and the framework of my practice is an entwining of drawing and making, reading and writing. Works have been made from book pages and from digital sources that acknowledge the potent identification with certain texts that you experience as a reader. An on-going series has been a form of mimetic interpretation that re-makes and re-thinks the original text through pencil drawings that copy the originary work with exactitude to produce a simulacra or replica. Central to this project is an interest in understanding phenomena through detail, exacting slowness and concentrated observation. Following Walter Benjamin’s observation that his notebooks ‘give depth to time’, I have used drawing and notation to explore archival material including Walter Benjamin’s own ephemera, held in the Walter Benjamin Archive at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. This body of work starts with drawings made in the archive as a form of the ‘fieldwork’ described by Michael Taussig then developed as detailed paper replicas using pencil and paint. These small works are forms that mix observation and reverie, analysis and poesis. Hand-made three-dimensional replicas of Benjamin’s notes and fragments are reproduced as printed multiples from my drawings. I am interested in the gap of reverence and esteem around Benjamin’s archived fragments, held like jewels due to their archival instability, and the need (or desire) to grasp the object and hold it close in the hands.
My current project, Cloud falls in love with Mortal, focusses on picture-making.
In 2019 I received an award from the Evelyn Williams Trust leading to a solo exhibition at Hastings Contemporary. As part of this, I am currently working on a large series of drawings that grow from an initial starting point. The catalyst was a newspaper image that somehow coalesced the everyday and the sublime as a fata morgana mirage that looked as if a portal to another world had opened in the sky above Hastings.
This body of work began during lockdown, and draws on a constellation of images and texts I have collected that seem to embody concepts of apocalyptic knowledge. Alongside images of the ocean and the fata morgana mirage, the works include images from John Ruskin, Greek mythology, the Apollo 13 space mission, and images drawn from an early episode of Star Trek in which a cloud falls in love with a mortal.
Featured Projects
My research is available on the ADMRC website. See ADMRC site
Relevant Projects
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
Publications
Key Publications
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/
Mccarthy, P. (2022). Cloud falls in love with mortal. [mixed / multi media]. Hasting Contemporary, Hastings. https://www.hastingscontemporary.org/exhibition/penny-mccarthy/
Pope, N., & Dougall, R. (2022). Drawing in. [1 drawing (100 x 70 cm) and a film]. An Tobar and Mull Theatre Druimfin, Tobermory Isle of Mull.
Journal articles
Mccarthy, P. (2023). Catworld. Textual Practice, 37 (7), 1042-1046. http://doi.org/10.1080/0950236x.2023.2224611
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. (2022). Drawing Discussions. In Drawing Discussions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LX6217-CNU, 23 March 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LX6217-CNU: Drawing Projects UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LX6217-CNU
Mccarthy, P. (2022). Drawing Discussions. In Drawing Discussions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LX6217-CNU, 23 March 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LX6217-CNU: Drawing Projects UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LX6217-CNU
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
Finney, L.H. (2024). Negotiating Fragments: History, Archive, Fiction(ing). (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Mccarthy, P., Kivland, S., Jones, P., & Shaw, B. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00608
Griffin, J. (2022). Aura in the post-digital: a diffraction of the curatorial archive. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Mccarthy, P., Ling, Y.F., & Atherton, M. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00481
Cascella, D. (2022). Nothing as we need it for chimeric writing. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Kivland, S., Mccarthy, P., & Bell, A. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00447
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. (2021). Moon Egg exhibited in A Strange Kind of Knowing, a touring exhibition. [hand blown egg, gesso, pencil]. London [and 1 additional location].
Mccarthy, P. (2021). Moon Egg exhibited in A Strange Kind of Knowing, a touring exhibition. [hand blown egg, gesso, pencil]. London [and 1 additional location].
Mccarthy, P. (2021). Moon Egg in A Strange Kind of Knowing, a touring exhibition of new commissions and recent work exploring the land, seasonal cycles, natural phenomena, intuition and nuance. The exhibition presents works that draw on alternative, marginalised and embodied ideas of knowledge intrinsically connected to the natural world. The exhibition is presented at venues in central London and at a new rural gallery at Haarlem Artspace. Penny McCarthy’s sculpture Moon Egg (2018) is a blown hen’s egg delicately painted with a map of the moon in its actual elongated form created by the gravitational push and pull of the Earth. Connecting cycles of the astronomical with the embodied, the work relates to early depictions of the moon by John Russell and Galileo, and the role of intuition in depicting individual perspectives and realities. [Hand blown egg, gesso and pencil]. Arusha Gallery, London and Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworthj.
Mccarthy, P. (2021). Moon Egg in A Strange Kind of Knowing, a touring exhibition of new commissions and recent work exploring the land, seasonal cycles, natural phenomena, intuition and nuance. The exhibition presents works that draw on alternative, marginalised and embodied ideas of knowledge intrinsically connected to the natural world. The exhibition is presented at venues in central London and at a new rural gallery at Haarlem Artspace. Penny McCarthy’s sculpture Moon Egg (2018) is a blown hen’s egg delicately painted with a map of the moon in its actual elongated form created by the gravitational push and pull of the Earth. Connecting cycles of the astronomical with the embodied, the work relates to early depictions of the moon by John Russell and Galileo, and the role of intuition in depicting individual perspectives and realities. [Hand blown egg, gesso and pencil]. Arusha Gallery, London and Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworthj.
Mccarthy, P. (2019). Was ist aura? [Paint, paper, printed media]. ttps://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/penny-mccarthy-researcher-blog-visiting-walter-benjamin-archive/?doing_wp_cron=1595507905.3556380271911621093750
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.
Horvat, V. (2024). By the Means at Hand. [pencil drawing on paper]. Venue: Fàbrica 33 (corner of Calle Larga dei Boteri and Calle Ruzzini), Cannaregio 5063, Venezia. https://www.croatianpavilion2024.com/#project
Horvat, V. (2024). By the Means at Hand. [pencil drawing on paper]. Venue: Fàbrica 33 (corner of Calle Larga dei Boteri and Calle Ruzzini), Cannaregio 5063, Venezia. https://www.croatianpavilion2024.com/#project
Images
Mccarthy, P. (2010). Lullaby constellation. [Exhibition of Drawing (site specific)].
Media
Mccarthy, P., & Glendinning, H. (2022). Cloud falls in love with mortal. [Film]. https://www.hastingscontemporary.org/exhibition/penny-mccarthy/
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. (2019). Beware the Cat. https://bewarethecat.home.blog/
Mccarthy, P., Babbage, F., OConnor, T., Stenner, R., & Glendinning, H. (2019). BEWARE THE CAT (film). https://vimeo.com/347112463
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/
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)
Postgraduate supervision
I supervise research students whose research enquires explore a range of territories, including the auratic potential of exhibition making, the use of fiction to explore the past, historic textiles using digital making processes and using drawing in response to care pathways in radiotherapy.
Completed
Louise Wilson
Brian Eccleshall
Jerome Harrington