Events › Exhibit: Art at Main

We're excited to have the work of two local bay area artists on display at the Main Library our first few months of being back open to the public!

Alicia McCarthy was born in and lives in Oakland. She is known for her signature style of vibrantly colored abstract patterns on mixed media panels, often using found materials. McCarthy received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1994 and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007.

“Each line has its own character.” In an interview with SFMOMA about why she works abstractly, McCarthy has said it has to do with the accessibility to making things. “There’s a simplicity and pureness to: it’s just a line, it’s just a color. And yet those are all the things that make up everything in all life.”

Isaac Vazquez Avila is a painter and sculptor who was born in Mexico City and now lives in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. Avila received his BA from San Francisco State University in Latino/a Studies and an MFA in 2016 from the University of California, Berkeley.

“It wasn’t until I lived in San Francisco that I realized being an artist was a thing.” His work, whether in painting or sculpture, relies on visual references to and found objects from walks he takes in his neighborhood. “[It’s] less about where I’ve been and more about… where did these things come from?”