About

Catherine Wang McMahon (b. 1999, San Francisco, CA, USA; they/she) is a queer, biracial Chinese-American artist whose practice began at age 5 at Xing Xing Art Studio in the Sunset District of San Francisco. They hold a BFA in Studio Art from New York University.

Shaped by their multicultural family- mother an immigrant from China, stepdad from India, stepmom from Brazil, and father, a Vietnam War veteran and the son of Italian and Irish immigrants- Catherine’s work explores the complexities of kinship through ecological and transgenerational landscapes. They aim to challenge dominant narratives and legacies of extraction, exploitation, and destruction across borders and barriers. Catherine’s site-specific works are rooted in the belief in the life force of nature- 氣, qi, प्राण, prana, força vital. They seek to foster symbiotic, sustainable relationships with Earth, advocating for the legal personhood and protections of the land, living beings, and one another in the fight against climate change. Climate issues must be seen as inherently intersectional, recognizing the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and cultural dynamics. To care for Earth is to care for each other.

Working with unstretched, grommeted paintings, their practice rejects the 15th-century European invention of the stretched canvas as a vehicle for Renaissance illusionism, instead drawing from the format and fluid spatial logic of traditional Asian watercolor landscape scrolls from the 10th to 14th centuries. The work’s adaptability echoes protest architecture, such as tents and temporary shelters, and the site-specific ethos of 1960s and 70s Land Art. Emphasizing mobility and impermanence, the practice engages traditions that challenge fixed boundaries and the Western art canon’s codification of painting.

EMAIL
catherinewmcmahon (at) gmail (dot) com

CURRICULUM VITAE

Catherine Wang McMahon

^{b. 1999, San Francisco, CA, USA}

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Future Finds, Bathers Library, Oakland, CA, USA
2025 ART FWD: 5x5x5, MarinMOCA, San Rafael, CA, USA
2025 Benefit Art Auction, ICA San José, San José, CA, USA
Adobe Books Fundraiser, Adobe Books & Arts Cooperative, San Francisco, CA, USA
Americana Landscape, Parts Peculiar, San Francisco, CA, USA
Lay of the Land, Root Division, San Francisco, CA, USA
2024 Hot Mess, Developing Environments, San Francisco, CA, USA
Truth As A Necessity, Galleria Boheme, San Francisco, CA, USA
2023 Pyramid Scheme, Bass & Reiner, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, USA
2022 Will There Really Be A Morning, NYU The Commons and Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Retro/Intro, NYU IFA Curatorial Collaborative, New York, NY, USA
Natural Habitats, Cabrillo Gallery, Aptos, CA, USA (Juried by Seagar Gray Gallery)
2021 Queer Art, FUZE, New York, NY, USA
2020 BFA, Serving the People, Augmented Reality
2019 Dinner Party, NYU Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY, USA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025 The Land Bears Witness, MADSEN, Los Altos, CA, USA
2023 California Nature, Four Chicken Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2019 Portraits from Home, Pacific Felt Factory, San Francisco, CA, USA

EDUCATION

2022 BFA, Studio Art, New York University, New York, NY
2019 Study Abroad, New York University, Paris, France

ROLES

Person, Friend, Living, Laughing, Loving

Present AIR Program Specialist, Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence Program, San Francisco, CA
since 2023

2025 Juror, David Brower Center, Art/Act: Local 2025, Berkeley, CA
2022-23 Gallery Manager, Micki Meng Gallery (Friends Indeed), San Francisco, CA
2021-22 Painting Restoration Apprentice, Chelsea Restoration Associates, Inc., Bronx, NY

SELECT PRESS
2025 Purohit, Shrey. “Lay of the Land: Observations from an Immigrant Viewer.” Roborant Review, 6 July 2025.

Bravo, Tony. “Get the ‘Lay of the Land’ at Root Division.” San Francisco Chronicle – Datebook, 6 June 2025.

2021 Harshaw, Pendarvis. “OK, But... What is Solidarity?”, KQED. 20 May 2021.

ET AL

2021 SNF Grant, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2020 Alternative Exposures Grant, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Artistic Practice Award, New York University, New York, NY
Global Pathways Scholarship, New York University, Paris, France
2017–22 Steinhardt Studio Art Scholarship, New York University, NY

Exhibition

© 2026 Catherine Wang McMahon. All Rights Reserved.