Anna McCarthy at Sperling

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Published: 12 December 2025

In her new exhibition Invisible Borders, Anna McCarthy explores the forms in which borders arise, operate, and dissolve – politically, socially, emotionally, and materially. The works combine drawing and painting techniques with elements of collage and assemblage, focusing on an aesthetics of process.

Anna McCarthy: Invisible Borders November 21, 2025 – January 31, 2026 Text: Monika Bayer-Wermuth Sperling, München

Most of the works were created in Munich and New York – partly in the studio, partly in public or outdoor spaces – and were deliberately exposed to the influences of weather and environment. Rain, wind, and sunlight left visible traces and thus became collaborators in the process of creation. The resulting surfaces oscillate between control and chance, between deliberate action and the letting go of artistic authority. This conscious act of exposure marks a fundamental dimension of McCarthy’s practice: the recognition of precarity as a productive condition and the willingness to engage with the unpredictable.

The exhibition unfolds around the motif of the garden – as a place of growth and care, but also of demarcation. Trellises, grids,