Paul McCarthy Continues to Define the Language of the Obscene in Them as Was Is @ Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin

Bringing together past and present, then and now, Them as Was Is, Paul McCarthy’s first solo exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler, presents two fundamental aspects of McCarthy’s practice. On the ground floor, eighteen sculptures constitute an early endeavour by the artist to combine different periods of sculpture into one, allowing visitors to draw out the similarities that weave together his most iconic sculptural projects. On the gallery’s upper floor, a series of drawings and video works from the artist’s more recent ‘A&E’ (2019–) project show film and performance to be at the heart of McCarthy’s practice.

The gallery’s second floor presents drawings created by McCarthy during improvised performances between himself and German actress Lilith Stangenberg as part of their ongoing ‘A&E’ project. The project’s title refers to the layered alter egos which McCarthy and Stangenberg assume: Adolf Hitler & Eva Braun, Adam & Eve, Arts & Entertainment, America & Europe. Created during hours-long sessions in which the collaborators enter a state of delirium, the drawings possess a radical immediacy and undeniable physicality. Alongside unconscious scrawls, magazine clippings, and imagery of Hitler and Mickey Mouse, certain drawings incorporate the artist’s tools, providing witness to the gestures embedded in them.

 
 

Them as Was Is is on view through October 21st at Galerie Max Hetzler, Potsdamer Straße 77-87, Berlin.

This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists @ Institute of Contemporary Art

This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich and Many Other Artists surveys an array of world-renowned artists and one indispensable assistant—the Los Angeles-based artist, sign painter, and fabricator Norm Laich. The exhibition will consist of paintings and graphic installations fabricated by Laich over the past three decades. Laich has been a key contributor to the production of many iconic works by a range of artists including Ed Ruscha, Paul McCarthy, Barbara Kruger, Allen Ruppersberg, and Jenny Holzer, among many others. The exhibition is on view through September 2 at Institute of Contemporary Art 717 East 7th Street Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Paul McCarthy "Raw Spinoffs Continuations" @ Hauser & Wirth Gallery In New York

Hauser & Wirth presents ‘Raw Spinoffs Continuations’, an exhibition of sculptures by Paul McCarthy. Featuring works from the artist’s most important projects of the last 15 years, including ‘WS’, ‘Caribbean Pirates’, and ‘Pig Island’, ‘Raw Spinoffs Continuations’ celebrates McCarthy’s distinctive process in the making and un-making of an artwork. Raw Spinoffs Continuations will be on view until January 14, 2017 at Hauser and Wirth, 18th Street in New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer

Paul McCarthy Signing Copies of His Expanded Monograph @ Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles

Los-Angeles-based artist Paul McCarthy creates Disneyesque installations, sculptures of animal/vegetable/human hybrids and slapstick performances in a purge of a national subconscious. The psycho-sexual desires and anxieties induced by the media and the built environment of contemporary America emerge in his collisions of plastic prosthetic limbs and condiments that stand in for bodily fluids. These works have been variously deployed: through live actions, often documented on video, and more recently in outsized figures and artificial rural environments, combined in overtly sexual ways. McCarthy's work echoes that of European artists such as Joseph Beuys or the Viennese Aktionistes, but gives 'action art' a postmodern twist. This new revised and expanded edition includes contributions by luminaries such as Kristine Stiles, Ralph Rugoff, Massimiliano Gioni and Robert Storr. Click here to purchase. photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

"Don't Look Back: The 90s At MOCA" Group Show @ The Museum of Contemporary Art In Los Angeles

Don’t Look Back: The 1990s at MOCA comprises works from MOCA’s permanent collection that identify the recent decade’s key concerns and transformations, including many that have not been on view since originally shown and acquired. If the 1980s were shaped by the advent of identity politics, producing significant works that examined the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality, the 1990s both extended and challenged these ideas. Many artists turned to large-scale installations as a way to convey a complicated interface between the public and the museum, or to articulate the realms of overlap and dissonance in individual and public identities. The exhibition includes works by Catherine Opie, Cady Noland, Sarah Sze, and Paul McCarthy, among others, and explores the complexities of the period by dividing the presentation into six thematically grouped sections, titled: Installation; The Outmoded; Noir America; Place and Identity; Touch, Intimacy, and Queerness; and Space, Place, and Scale. Don’t Look Back: The 1990s at MOCA will be on view until July 11, 2016 at the Museum of Contemporary Art In Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

10 Must See Art Shows Around The World That You Really, Really Need To Check Out

1. Consumption, sexuality, violence, voyeurism, discomfort, guilt, loss of control, and fantasy at Paul McCarthy’s exhibition at Schinkel Pavillon – on view until November 22 in Berlin, Germany 2. Brad Phillip’s erotic Honeymoon Rehearsal at Rod Bianco opening on November 20 in Oslo, Norway 3. See Niki de Saint Phalle’s psychedelic world at the National Art Center in Tokyo, Japan – on view until December 14 4. Alex Israel’s cool, cool world at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas 5. See the late Dash Snow’s posthumous retrospective at the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut 6. Misha Hollenbach and Cali Thornhill Dewitt team up for Hot Fire in Milan, Italy 7. Pablo Picasso’s sculptures are on view at The Museum of Modern Art In New York City, New York 8. The Avant-Garde Won’t Give Up at Blum & Poe in Los Angeles, California 9. Josh Jefferson is putting his Head Into The Trees at Gallery 16, opening on November 13, in San Francisco, California 10. Gilbert & George’s subversive banners will be on view at White Cube starting on November 25 in London, Englan

Paul McCarthy Designs Limited Edition Skatedecks

Paul McCarthy borrows from his series PROPO to design a series of skatedecks. Through this collection, The Skateroom and Paul McCarthy aim to entirely finance the building of Skateistan’s first skate school on the African continent, in central Johannesburg. The innovative facility will use “the hook” of skateboarding to connect vulnerable youth to educational and leadership opportunities. The vision is for Skateistan, South Africa’s skate school to serve as a regional training hub for skateboard-based, youth-development projects. Each deck is hand-numbered, signed and limited to 250 units. Click here to get pick up your own deck and support this amazing project. photograph by Damon McCarthy

Paul McCarthy: Propo

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"Between 1972 – 1983, I did a series of performances which involved masks, bottles, pans, uniforms, dolls, stuffed animals, etc. After the performances these objects were either left behind or they were collected and stored in suitcases and trunks to be used in future performances. In 1983, the closed suitcases and trunks containing these performance objects were stacked on a table and exhibited as sculpture. In 1991, I opened the suitcases and trunks photographing each item. The group of photographs in their entirety was titled PROPO," says Paul McCarthy. Hauser & Wirth presents n exhibition of over 60 photographs by Paul McCarthy. This selection, many of which have only been seen before in publications, is taken from the artist’s large group of more than 120 photographs, collectively known as ‘PROPO’. Propo is on view until October 20, 2012 at Hauser and Wirth, Limmatstrasse 270 8005 Zurich 

James Franco's Rebel Opening This Weekend in Los Angeles

MOCA presents Rebel, conceived by James Franco with Douglas Gordon, Harmony Korine, Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Terry Richardson, Ed Ruscha, Aaron Young and more. Rebel will be on view from May 15 through June 23, 2012, at JF Chen, a newly emerging contemporary art and design space, located at 941 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Photograph by Adarsha Benjamin