Using small, custom-built computer systems, artist and engineer Clive McCarthy produces painterly images rendered on screens and projectors.

Clive McCarthy: Electric Paintings is an immersive installation of continuously shifting painterly images. The images, wrought with painterly gestures like brush strokes and thick dabs of color, are derived from photographic base images which are then “painted” in random sequences in his program. Visitors will be able to walk through these large projected “paintings” which move and rework themselves into innumerable moving images continuously over time. With every visit to McCarthy’s exhibition, visitors will see a new iteration of a painting.

McCarthy received his B.Sc. in Electronics from University of Salford, England and his MFA in New Genres from San Francisco Art Institute. McCarthy has participated in numerous exhibitions in California and Canada. McCarthy spent 17 years as Chief Engineer at the semiconductor maker Altera before earning his MFA at San Francisco State University.

Clive McCarthy: Electric Paintings is part of the ongoing series of ICA Sandbox Projects. The distinctive Sandbox Projects encourage artists to experiment, take risks, and create immersive, site-specific installations that would not otherwise be realized. Clive McCarthy: Electric Paintings is ICA Sandbox Project 9.

Clive McCarthy: Electric Paintings is supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and members of the ICA’s Director’s Circle.