Opening Reception: Saturday, November 22, 2008, 5-8pm

The Coop is pleased to present In Search of the Miraculous, an exhibition of new work by Leigh McCarthy.

McCarthy presents new prints, drawings and a diorama. The individual pieces work together to create a journey through shipwreck, salvage, and discovery. In Search of the Miraculous evokes a yearning for the sublime, which McCarthy examines in a delicate and poetic manner. McCarthy’s work has a highly refined aesthetic, which embraces the process of entropy through the decay of pigments. McCarthy also engages with the influence of negative space. She suggests that what is not there can be as evocative as what is.

The title, In Search of the Miraculous, is based on a triptych by the Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader who in 1975 embarked on a daring attempt to cross the Atlantic in 12 foot sailboat. Six month later his boat was found off the coast of Ireland, but he has vanished. As a “romantic conceptualist” the subject closest to McCarthy’s heart is the tenderness of failure.

McCarthy has most recently been included in projects at the Getty Center, Los Angeles (2008); and Phantom Galleries, Los Angeles (2008). She has also shown at L.A.C.E., Los Angeles (2006); Anna Helwing Gallery, Culver City (2005); and the Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2000).

the Coop, 1108 Howard St., San Francisco, CA 94103