Pat McCarthy

Pat McCarthy, born 1987, lives and works in Brooklyn and Andes, New York. He works primarily in sculpture, zines, and video, as well as staging social happenings, many of which include preparing and serving food. McCarthy’s work traverses many crafts and disciplines to explore methods of storytelling.

Since 2012, much of his work is executed on his Brooklyn rooftop, engaging with the hundreds of domestic pigeons he is raising and flying. The cornerstone of his practice is the zine Born to Kill, begun in 2009 with 106 issues to date. Built by hand and printed on Xerox machines, the zines present poetic narratives of the experiments, constructions, and fugitive gestures of the artist.

Since 2018, he has worked part-time with his partner Maddy Ringold-Brown to construct a small farmstead, Niknak’s Farm, on a steep hillside in the Catskill Mountains.

McCarthy is a contributor to the collectives Satan Ceramics and 8 Ball Community. His work is in the collections of MoMA, New York; Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain, Marseille; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; the McEvoy Foundation, San Francisco; and many libraries and private collections internationally.

Solo Exhibitions



2023 Paradise, HULIAS, Oslo


2023 New Sculpture, NADA NY, Entrance, New York

2022 Wedding (two-person show with Maddy Ringold-Brown), Niknak’s Farm, Andes NY


2019 NikNak’s City Cart, Entrance, New York                            

2018 Surfin’ Bird Odyssey, Boo Hooray Gallery, Montauk NY

2017 Asphalt Paper, Practice Gallery, New York

2017 Pat’s Pigeon Brunch, Boo Hooray Gallery, Montauk NY

2016 Brick by Brick, Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain, Marseille

2015 Shelters, Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco

2015 Slabs, Agnès B., New York

2014 Pat’s Pigeon Club, Muddguts, Brooklyn

2013 Delire Gallery, Brussels

Selected Group Exhibitions


2023 Copy Machine Manifestos, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn

2023 La Rentrée, curated by Entrance, the Community, Paris

2022 Points of Return, curated by River Vallery Arts Collective, Hudson House, Hudson NY

2022 For the Birds, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn


2021 Endurance, Rockafellar Center, New York


2020 Avec le vent, Manifesta 13, Marseille


2020 My Favorite Things #2, Festival International du Livre d’Art et du Film, Perpignan France


2019 Horology, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York


2019 Satan Ceramics, Galería Mascota, ZONA MACO, Mexico City       

2018 Swamp Pavilion, Lithuanian Pavilion, Venice Biennale of Architecture, Venice

2018 A History of Zines, MoMA PS1, New York

2017 Making Public Domain, Middelheim Sculpture Museum, Antwerp

2017 Eden, Aperture Foundation, New York

2016 Avec le vent, Vieux Port, Marseille

2016 Satan Ceramics, Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco

2015 The Newsstand, New Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York

2015 Field Effects, le Cap, les Rencontres d’Arles Festival, Arles

2014 Thanks for Nothing, Muddguts, Brooklyn

2014 The Smiley Face Show, Salon 94, Frieze London

2014 Satan Ceramics, Salon 94, New York

2014 It’s an Invasion, National Arts Club, New York

2013 la Dernière Vague, la Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille

2013 In Praise of Chance and Failure, Family Business, New York

Residencies

2021 NASA Space Program, Rare Earths Mission, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg

2016 Eden, with Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques/Hermes Foundation, North Carolina                                                                             

2016 NASA Space Program, Europa Mission, YBCA, San Francisco               

2016 la Busserine, Logerim Foundation/FRAC Sud, Marseille 

2012 NASA Space Program, Mars Mission, Park Avenue Armory, New York               

2012 Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School, Los Angeles                                 

2007 NASA Space Program, Moon Mission, Gagosian, Los Angeles



Artist Lectures (in person)

2023 HORT/CULTURE, Cactus store at Nine Orchard, New York

2019 The Cooper Union, freshman class of Walid Raad, New York                          

2018 Institute for Interspecies Art and Relations, Entrance, New York                                                                                            

2017 Commonism, Middelheim Sculpture Museum, Antwerp                                                                                              

2017 Eat My Paper, Recyclart, Brussels                                            

Selected Bibliography

2023 Copy Machine Manifestoes, Drew Sawyer and Branden W. Joseph, Phaidon

2023 8 Ball Almanac, 8 Ball Community, Nero

2018 Street to Studio, Rafael Schacter, Lund Humphries

2018 Commonism: New Aesthetics of the Real, Nico Dockx and Pascal Gielen, Valiz

2016 The Newsstand, Lele Saveri, Rizzoli