Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Paul McCarthy to open Summer exhibition in London at Hauser & Wirth Saville Row.
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.
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
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.
Paul McCarthy. Outside is Inside, Inside is Outside. God is Dog. Dog is God, 5th June – 2nd August 2025, Hauser & Wirth London
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 next week on 15th April 2025.
About the Artist
Paul McCarthy is widely regarded as one of the most influential and provocative figures in contemporary American art. Born in 1945 and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, McCarthy began his career by challenging the boundaries of traditional painting, incorporating unconventional materials like bodily fluids and food into his early work. His practice soon expanded across a range of media—performance, photography, film, video, sculpture, drawing, and painting—marked by a visceral, often darkly humorous sensibility.
In the 1990s, McCarthy shifted toward large-scale installations and freestanding sculptural figures, using materials such as fiberglass, silicone, animatronics, and inflatable vinyl. These works blur the line between fantasy and reality, drawing on cultural myths and popular illusions to create disorienting, dreamlike environments that probe the depths of the subconscious and defy the viewer’s expectations.
At the heart of McCarthy’s work is the human figure—sometimes present, sometimes implied—manifested through his own performances or the exaggerated characters he invents. These figures often parody and critique elements of both high and low culture, pulling from Hollywood, politics, philosophy, science, literature, and television. In doing so, McCarthy reveals the anxieties and traumas hidden beneath the glossy surface of the American Dream, while engaging with—and subverting—the tropes of art history.
McCarthy received a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969, followed by an MFA in multimedia, film, and art from the University of Southern California in 1973. He went on to teach performance, video, installation, and art history for 18 years in the New Genres Department at UCLA, mentoring a generation of West Coast artists. His work has been exhibited internationally and includes collaborations with fellow artists such as Mike Kelley, Jason Rhoades, and his son, Damon McCarthy.
