Biography
Mark McCarthy is a multi-award winning, Melbourne based artist with a career spanning more than 20 years. Since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), he has gained a reputation for his unique approaches to painting, holding multiple solo and group exhibitions throughout Victoria. He has been a finalist in numerous national art prizes. In 2004 he was awarded the John Leslie Art Prize for landscape painting and in 2011 he won the Whyalla Art Prize, an award he later judged in 2013. Mark is a recipient of a New Work Grant from the Australia Council. He lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.
‘...McCarthy speaks of the act of painting as the progressive pushing forward of a frontier. By detailing some areas and leaving others open and raw, he can utilise devices that change the spatial progression. At the same time, there is an almost nostalgic sense of reaching back to memories and motifs loaded with meaning. The result is a tension whereby things feel both strangely familiar and new and inexplicable at the same time’
Kerrilee Ninnis, 'Cabins' catalogue, Tacit Galleries, November 2019
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Cabins, Tacit Galleries, Collingwood
2018 Crux, Melbourne East Arts Festival, Vic
2017 Mark, City of Yarra, Richmond Library, Vic
2011 Relationships in Everywhere, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Everything at once never stops moving, Dianne Tanzer, Melbourne
2007 Via Fiction, Dianne Tanzer gallery, Melbourne
2006 Variable Speeds, Dianne Tanzer gallery, Melbourne
Weapons of Choice, The Next Wave Festival, Bus Gallery, Melbourne
The Opponent, Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla Vic
2005 The Opponent, Dianne Tanzer gallery, Melbourne
2003 Cheat Mode, Red Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Untitled, 303 La Trobe St Gallery, Melbourne
Selected group exhibitions and awards
2023 Whence It Came, Divisions Gallery, Coburg, Vic
2022 Whitewall Art Prize 'Into The Light', Berrima, NSW
2022 The Glover Art Prize, Evandale, Tasmania
2021 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Art Gallery, Vic
2020 Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, Campbelltown Art Centre, NSW
A1 Darebin Art Salon. Bundoora Homestead, Vic
20[20 x 20], Tacit Galleries, Collingwood
Gippsland Bushfire Appeal Exhibition & Auction
2018 Weddings, Parties, Anything, Collingwood Justice Centre
2018 Stanthorpe Art Prize, Qld
2015 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize
2011 Whyalla Art Prize, South Australia, Whyalla
2010 Tidal, City of Devonport Art Award, Tasmania
2009 Whyalla Art Prize, South Australia, Whyalla
2008 Fletcher Jones Art Prize, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Williamstown Festival, Contemporary Art Prize, The Substation
2007 The Prometheus Art Award, Prometheus Art Gallery Foundation
‘2x20’ Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
Williamstown Festival, Contemporary Art Prize, The Substation
2005 The Discovery Art Show, Gasworks Arts Park, Melbourne
2004 Tremor’ Space 39, Melbourne
City of Whyalla Art Prize,Middleback Theatre, South Australia
Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown City, New South Wales
Linden Postcard Show, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Gallery, Sale
2003 11th A4, Westspace, Melbourne
Leisureland, Red Gallary, Melbourne
Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship
Precognition, Red Gallery, Melbourne
Smorgon Steel Contemporary Art Prize, Nelson Place, Williamstown
The Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown, NSW
2002 Untitled, St Martins Theatre Complex, Melbourne
Me, Mine, Ours, Red Gallery, Melbourne
Untitled, Kent Gallery, 201 Smith St.
Sub 500’ Dickerson Gallery, Sydney
Graduate Show 2002, V.C.A Gallery, Melbourne
Post Graduate 2002 Exhibition Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Emerging Artist Program, Bulle Gallery, Melbourne
ANZ Visual Arts Fellowship Award 2001 380 Collins St, Melbourne
Graduate Show 2001, V.C.A. Gallery Melbourne
Post V.C.A Gallery, Melbourne
Only Forward Sinclair Gallery, Corio
2000 Work from the Stables, 69 Smith St, Melbourne
Awards and Grants
2022 Winner Glover Prize Children's Choice, Evandale, Tasmania
2011 Winner, Whyalla Art Prize, Whyalla S.A
2008 Recipient New Work Grant – Emerging Artist, Australia Council
2005 Winner, Best In Show, The Discovery Art Show, Gasworks Arts Park
2004 Winner, The John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Gallery, Sale
2003 Winner, The Smorgan Steel, Custom Wharf Gallery Art Prize
Collections
Art Bank
Board of Studies Victoria
Gasworks Art Park
Whyalla City Council
Related
2013 Whyalla Art Prize, Judge