Untitled (1), 2016 by Alicia McCarthy

Alicia McCarthy creates delicate abstract paintings that blend San Francisco's bohemian street culture with folk art traditions. Working with humble, non-traditional materials like house paint and discarded wood, McCarthy crafts intricate woven patterns that recall vintage textiles, often incorporating subtle text fragments like “THE REAL YOU” and “The way in is the way out.” As a key member of San Francisco’s influential 1990s Mission School movement—featured in the 2008 documentary Beautiful Losers—her work embodies an “urban rustic” punk-folk aesthetic that finds beauty in raw, everyday materials.

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SOBU is proud to feature fine art prints created by our friends at Paulson Fontaine Press, a woman- and minority-owned publisher based in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1996, the press collaborates with visionary artists—including Kerry James Marshall, Martin Puryear, Tauba Auerbach, and the Quilters of Gee’s Bend—to produce exceptional limited-edition intaglio etchings. Grounded in a commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices, particularly Black artists, Paulson Fontaine Press creates works that are held in major institution collections nationwide, including MoMA, the Whitney, the National Gallery of Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.