Crisps, toilet-paper, plastic bags, magazines, supermarket packaging, rubbish and furniture are some of the raw materials utilised to excessive or absurd effect, in works which characteristically respond to things generally so familiar that they go unnoticed. The unexpected manner of its display draws exceptional attention to the surface values of this otherwise unassuming everyday stuff, enabling a fresh look at the inherent codes and mechanisms through which we represent and give value to things in the world. The nature and rendering of such material inevitably involves considering also the shift between humble and monumental, throwaway and precious, original and mass production, whilst engaging with notions of art and the artist.

-Caroline McCarthy

Biography

Caroline McCarthy was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1971. She studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, 1989 – 1994 and is based in London since completing an MA Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 1998. Past awards include a postgraduate scholarship from the Arts Council of Ireland in 1997; the AIB artist award in 2001; Open Award at EV+A 1996 and 2001; and a Multi-Annual Bursary award from the Arts Council of Ireland, 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include Grand Detour, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf, (2007), and Parker’s Box Gallery, New York (2006); There at Void Gallery, Derry, N.Ireland (2006). Commissions include WindoWall: a billboard project in Letterkenny, Ireland (2004); Happiness (After Dodd): a new work for the DeLaWarr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK (2005). Her work is in the collections of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Arts Council of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank, The Zabludowicz Collection UK, Bergé Collection Madrid, and private collections.

More information on Caroline's work can be found at: http://www.carolinemccarthy.net