LISA McCARTHY

I am primarily a painter, however, drawing and sculpture provide approaches to art-making that are essential to the core of my interdisciplinary practice. I emotionally and physically engage through experimentation while building up many layers of material to produce a body of work. The tactility of the process and my interaction with each piece are a major beginning for the development of narratives. For this reason, I am never deliberate in my process. I compose as I interact with the work, take risks, and allow chance to guide my composition.

I embrace the unexpected, as well as stories involving historical information and current events, in order to process my personal experiences. These interactions provide a conceptual foundation for my work. Thematic areas of investigation include gender, athleticism, family dynamics, mental states, human resilience and morality. While I may begin a series at a common origin, each piece develops on its own and articulates a unique blending of emotions, experiences and backstories.

No work I make has a singular narrative or intention. Whether it is the series I have begun on the eccentric signifiers of commercial kitchens, or the Poor Lydia series with blunt personal narratives, I have found that through humor, we can translate the pain, embarrassment and anger of our inner lives in a way that is better received by the public. I believe when we are able to laugh at common situations—human resilience, addictions, tragedy, trauma, gender—we can experience a moment of acceptance that will bind us together.

After a successful career in the business of creativity, Lisa is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of South Florida. She received her BFA in 2017 with honors from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA.

In 1996, Lisa co-founded CommCreative, a digital and traditional marketing agency, where she was the Agency Principal until 2018. It is now a full-service international advertising agency.

Lisa founded Factory Mark Gallery in 2016, a contemporary art gallery for emerging (and re-emerging) artists where 100% of the sales go directly to the artists. It has enabled over twenty local artists to show a diverse body of work and has connected passionate creatives outside of the art scene to contemporary discourse.

Lisa has had her work shown in multiple group shows throughout the greater Boston area, including AudioArt and the Kingston Gallery. Her works have been added to the collections of many private and corporate collectors and she has produced a number of commissions. Although primarily a painter, her work as a contemporary artist includes drawing, sculpture, and performance art.