Then & Now: Mark McCarty

Albany, New York - August 8, 2018 - Albany Center Gallery is pleased to showcase Then & Now: Mark McCarty, a photo exhibition of McCarty’s series Cara Mia, from Tuesday, September 11 through Saturday, October 13, 2018. The gallery’s annual Then & Now exhibit features work by artists who have shown in the gallery previously and whose careers have made a significant contribution to the local art community. An artist’s reception will be held on Friday, September 14 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and the public is invited to attend. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. Albany Center Gallery will also host a public artist talk with McCarty on Thursday, September 27 at 6 p.m. at the gallery. Attendees will have the unique chance to hear firsthand about McCarty’s process, inspiration, and his goals as a photographer. 

Mark McCarty is a freelance photographer who has worked locally in the Capital Region, as well as throughout the country, for the last 35 years. He has shown his work locally, nationally, and internationally, beginning his photographic career at the New York State Assembly in Albany. Most notably, some of McCarty’s personal work resides in the permanent collections of the J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Albany Institute of History and Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the International Center for Photography (ICP) in New York City. 

In addition to showing his work throughout the United States and beyond, McCarty has established a longstanding local presence in and around New York’s Capital Region. Some of McCarty’s local endeavors include exhibitions at the galleries of local colleges and universities, as well as working on projects with New York-based nonprofit The Colon Club and Albany Amtrak to help tell the stories of colon cancer survivors and Alzheimers patients. McCarty is a recipient of several awards for his work. These include awards from the Nikon International Photo Contest, the International Photography Awards, Photo District News, the Albany Institute Mohawk-Hudson Regional, and the Ilford Cibachrome Grant competition, to name a few. McCarty has also received grants from the New York State Council on Arts and the Catskill Center for Photography.

Then & Now: Mark McCarty will welcome the photographer back after almost 40 years since his work first hung on the gallery’s walls. The exhibit will feature McCarty’s series Cara Mia, the subject of which is his wife MaryKate. Cara Mia presents wet and dry textures of MaryKate’s skin and hair to explore themes of identity, the passage of time, and human mortality. “They’re about my exploration of that thin, vulnerable, and mortal skin between all of us and the world,” McCarty reveals. Familiar images of the human form make this series a deeply personal one, both for the artist and the viewer. Then & Now: Mark McCarty will set Cara Mia against the backdrop of McCarty’s 1979 exhibit in the gallery, known at that time as Center Galleries.  Reflecting on the work he showed in his maiden exhibit alongside steel sculptures by Arline Shulman, McCarty shared “I was surprised that the work from it I was most proud of were truncated views of my late wife in a bubble bath. Her legs, knees, and braided hair, all looked like monumental landscapes, like the legs of Ozymandias rising in the desert.” The photos in this series revisit related themes and subject matter from the 1979 show, but in the context of the present day.

Then & Now: Mark McCarty will be on display at Albany Center Gallery from Tuesday, September 11 through Saturday, October 13, 2018. An Opening Reception will be held at ACG on Friday, September 14 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and the public is invited to attend. ACG will also host a public artist talk on Thursday, September 27 at 6 p.m.; the exhibit, opening reception and artist talk are all free and open to the public.

Exhibit Sponsors: Kevin & Cindi Dubner, Park Albany, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Albany Wine & Dine for the Arts Festival

Exhibit Dates: Tuesday, September 11 - Saturday, October 13, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, September 14 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at ACG
Artist Talk: Thursday, September 27 at 6 p.m. at ACG

Click here to download a PDF of the press release.