Paul McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and he received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
He works across media in performance, installation, sculpture, film and “painting as action.” Inspired by American popular culture, lewd sexual innuendo, McCarthy constructs critiques of consumerism and art while breaking the limitations of painting through the use of the body. From 1982 to 2002 McCarthy taught performance, video, installation, and performance art history at the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently living and working in Los Angeles, CA.
McCarthy has exhibited across the US and internationally at The Museum of Modern Art , Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Venice Biennale International Exhibition, Gwangju Biennale, EVA International, SITE Santa Fe.Castello di Rivoli, Rockbund Art Museum, MOCA Los Angeles, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Hammer Museum, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Hamburger Bahnhof, Neue Nationalgalerie, Haus der Kunstn Whitechapel Gallery, Museo Reina Sofia, Palazzo Grassi-Punta della Dogana, and International Center of Photography, among countless others.
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February 14, 2020