Artists

PAUL McCARTHY

Press release

One of the leading contemporary American artists of his generation, Paul McCarthy has developed a distinct and subversive artistic practice throughout his long career, which now spans more than five decades. In this exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London, McCarthy will construct an installation within the North Gallery, utilizing a disused theater set as a location for drawing, digital recording and AI interaction. This format is part of a trajectory in McCarthy’s work going back to the 1960s of drawing and painting as action or performance. The exhibition will display a continuation of themes explored in improvised performances between artist Paul McCarthy and German actor Lilith Stangenberg entitled ‘Adolf & Eva, Adam & Eve,’ a satirically uncompromising oeuvre. This project reflects McCarthy’s lifelong exploration of bodily abjection, human entanglement, power, Hollywood and the underbelly of the 20th- and 21st-Century’s cultural and political climate. The works on view will serve as documentation of both McCarthy’s incisive critical lens and his practice of synthesizing performance, film, painting, drawing, sculpture and sound. A unique artist’s book documenting artist Paul McCarthy and Lilith Stangenberg’s acclaimed performance piece, ‘Paul McCarthy: A&E, ADOLF & EVA, ADAM & EVE, DEAD END HOLE, PICNIC,’ will be released by Hauser & Wirth Publishers in January 2025.