Amy McCormac

 

ARTIST STATEMENT AND BIO

 

Family. We love them. We fight with them. We inherit their fears, their anxieties, their ways of moving through the world — often without realizing it. Amy McCormac paints about family, not as an idealized concept, but as the messy, complicated, deeply personal thing it is. “McCormac doesn’t shy away from representing distressing scenarios, consistently placing herself and her relatives in less-than-favorable lights,” as Artforum’s Annabel Osberg put it. “She lays bare her messy life for viewers to see, and perhaps learn from.”

McCormac doesn’t paint strangers. She paints the people she loves most — her parents, her daughters, her husband and herself - capturing the tensions, vulnerabilities, and unspoken histories that shape them. These aren’t perfect family portraits. They’re raw, honest and often a bit funny. Scenes unfold in distorted perspectives and heightened colors, built from memory, old family photos, and selfies. The compositions are immediate, often life-size, pulling us straight into their cinematic world.

McCormac’s paintings are not photorealistic, but they transport you to an emotionally true place and time. Stylized, expressionistic and unmistakably hers. They invite recognition - because whether or not you see your own family here, you know these dynamics. The tension, the longing, the cycles we all try (and fail) to break.

McCormac has painted since she was 14, though life took her elsewhere - illustration, production, raising a family, caring for ill parents. Although she has little formal training, two decades of life sessions have honed a style that feels both practiced and deeply personal.

Amy McCormac recently had a solo show at Serious Topics in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in group shows in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and for Swoon’s Heliotrope Foundation at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ.

McCormacs’ paintings are featured in numerous private collections in the USA. She lives in Los Angeles.

Press includes ArtForum Magazine.



SELECTED QUOTES BY ART PROFESSIONALS

“I like an art that runs counter to the dominant strain with its very openness. What I find brave and beautiful is work that’s willing to be earnest even when earnestness is seen as awkward. I like art that shows up vulnerable even if that means being passed over by those that prefer never to be reminded of their humanity (i.e. their mortality). And so, I love paintings like the work of Amy McCormac. They have an oddness and a vulnerability and a willingness to depict ordinary unglamorous aspects of daily life that I appreciate and find quite beautiful.“

SWOON (Caledonia Curry)

“Very interesting project. Keep going…all very strong”

- Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine Chief Art Critic

“Invoking personal experience, Amy McCormac paints themes of family revealing their complex and honest realities. Her artworks explore the emotional under layers of motherhood, love, grief, depression and religion - under layers that art history often neglects. McCormac’s paintings are autobiographical, visual synopses composed of a surprising color palette, backed by profound emotional energy and exceptional technical skill.”

-@InvestInHerArt



CV

b.1960 Chicago, Illinois

Lives and Works in Los Angeles

Education

1982 B.F.A. Mundelein College, Chicago

Solo Show

2024 – February 29 - March 30 , What Made Her, Serious Topics, Los Angeles

2 Person Shows

2024 - March 16 – April 12

Forget Me Knot, curated by Shannon Rae Finke, The Middle Room Gallery, Los Angeles

Group Shows

2021- Defiance of Juncture, curated by Badir McCleary @ ArtAboveReality, ArtShareLA, Los Angeles, CA

2020 - Portraits of Yesteryear curated by Badir McCleary @ ArtAboveReality VR show at https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/2701775/portraits-of-yesteryear

2019 - Heliotrope Foundation fundraising print series curated by Caledonia Curry aka Swoon, “First Meeting”

2017 - Colorado Showcase, curated by Rose Fredericks, Parker Art Center, Denver, CO

2015 - Plein Air Art Show - Mineral Point, WI

2014 - Morpho Art Gallery - Chicago, IL

2002-20014 - Evanston Art Center - Evanston, IL

Prints

https://www.heliotropeprints.org/collections/all

Private Collections

  • Don and Dinah Jacobs, Evanston, Illinois

  • Debi and Lawrence Gonzales, Evanston, Illinois

  • Margaret and Patrick Ghielmetti, Pulley, Switzerland

  • David and Mary Engen, Austin, Texas

  • Patty and Rick Fuller, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

  • Julie and David Farina, Wilmette, Illinois

  • Stacey Guastaferro, Lake Forest, Illinois

  • Janet Carr, Seattle, Washington

  • Kimetha and Sergio Firpo, Oak Park, Illinois

  • Karen and Henry Kleschen, Evanston, Illinois

  • Mike Leben, Thousand Oaks, California

  • Heather and Tom Palmer, Wilmette, Illinois

  • Jack and Virginia O’Rourke, Dubuque, Iowa

  • Karen and Jeff Phillips, Washington, DC

Press

Artfourm, Summer Issue Review, Annabel Osberg, 2024

VoyageLA, April 2024

Art Above Reality, The Drawing Board Documentary, 2024

Shout Out LA, June 2023