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kim mccarty | awareness

Writer: Grace
Grace
Mar 7
3 min read

Updated: Aug 25

Kim McCarty is a watercolor painter, based in Los Angeles, CA, who evokes the “impermanence of nature and humanity” in her works. Her watercolors capture fluid renderings of natural figures and objects, balancing realism and abstraction. I chose to look into her because I feel like this is close to what I want to do with my work, although she has more of a balance of realism with realistic colors!



Galleries:

  • Within “Exhibitions” sections

Collections:

  • Multiple public & private collections

Solo Exhibitions

  • Kim McCarty: New Work, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY 

  • Kim McCarty: From the Studio, David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI

  • Kim McCarty Paints, Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica, CA (catalog)

  • Girls and Boys, Morgan Lehman, New York, NY 

  • New Work, Kim Light/ Lightbox, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Kim McCarty, David Klein Gallery, Detroit, Michigan 

  • Kim McCarty, cherry and martin, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Kim McCarty, Briggs Robinson Gallery, New York, NY 

  • Under Glass, cherrydelosreyes, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Watercolors, Santa Barbara Contemporary Art Forum, Santa Barbara, CA

  • Kim McCarty, Rebecca Ibel, Columbus, OH 

  • Kim McCarty, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna, CA 

  • Kim McCarty, Recent Paintings, De Chiara/ Stewart, New York, NY 

  • Kim McCarty, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna, CA 

  • Drawings, Works on Paper Inc. Los Angeles, CA (catalog)

Education

  • MFA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 

  • BFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA 

Honors, Residencies, & Awards

  • Unclear

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • Salon, David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI 

  • Watercolor, Sansiao Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 

  • Artists for ICALA, Christies, CA 

  • About Face, South Hampton Arts Guild, South Hampton, NY 

  • Who is Joan Quinn, Cornell Art Museum, Cornell, NY 

  • Water/Bodies, South Hampton Arts Guild, South Hampton, NY 

  • Love Potions: Kim McCarty, Mona Kuhn, Roger Herman, Maloney Fine Art, Culver City, CA 

  • Billboard Creative, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Elective Affinities, Fundacao Carmona e Costa, Lisbon, Portugal 

  • Paper-Work, Maloney Fine Art, Culver City, CA 

  • Watercolor, Griffin Fine Art, London, England 

  • The Armory Show, David Klein Gallery, New York, NY 

  • Wet: Kim McCarty/Natalie Franks, Eden Rock Gallery, St. Barths 

  • Fresh, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Twisted Sister, Dodge Gallery, New York, NY 

  • Eve, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Blue, Blue, Kim Light Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Dilettantes, Divas and Dandies, Gavlak Projects, Palm Beach, FL 

  • Watercolorland, Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Ces Enfants Étranges, Shore Institute of the Arts, Asbury Park, NJ 

  • Black Dragon Society, Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, CA 

  • California Contemporary Art, Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan 

  • Artists’ Portraits of Artists, Pace University Gallery, New York, NY 

  • Empty Nest: The Changing Face of Childhood in Art, 1880 to the present, Nathan A. Bernstein Gallery, New York, NY (catalog) 

  • Hammer Contemporary Collection: Part 2, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA 

  • The Unexpected Watercolor, Lee Center for the Arts, Seattle University, Seattle, WA 

  • 100 artists, 100 hundred watercolors, Jeannie Freilich Fine Art, New York, NY

  • Figuratively Speaking: Part 2, Elika Wimmer Gallery, New York, NY 

  • LA: Now, Dominique Fiat Galerie, Paris, France

  • Liquid Los Angeles: Currents of Contemporary Watercolor Painting, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA 

  • The Unexpected Watercolor, The Art Gym, Marylhurst University, Portland, OR 

  • Drawn to the Present, Pace University Gallery, Pleasantville, NY 

  • What's Doin?, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA 

  • Summer Group Show, Cherrydelosreyes, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Expect: Art, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY 

  • Behind Door Nine, University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

  • International Paper, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (catalog) 

  • Smoking Pencils Rolling Papers, Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, CA 

  • The Great Drawing Show 1550-2002, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

  • Biosystems, Institute of Genetic Medicine Art Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 

  • What a Painting Can Do, Hayworth Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Re-Configuration, Central Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Beijing, China (catalog) 

  • H20, Works On Paper, Inc. Los Angeles, CA 

  • LA Current: A Media Fusion, UCLA Gallery at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

  • LA Current, The Female Perspective, UCLA Gallery at the Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 

  • LA Woman, Lutz Hegenbarth, Cologne, Germany


I enjoyed seeing all of her work and her ability to display it. Overall, she was a very interesting artist!


  • 2025, Blue/Sienna, watercolor on Arches paper
  • 2021, Echo Blue Center, watercolor on Arches paper
  • 2025, Red, watercolor on Arches paper

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