Paul McCarthy
American
Paul McCarthy is renowned for his provocative performances, multimedia installations, and sculptures that blur the boundaries between high and low culture, offering scathing critiques of American politics, consumerism, and mythmaking. His work is deliberately graphic, often violent and sexually explicit, challenging viewers' comfort and cultural assumptions. In Caribbean Pirates (2001–05), McCarthy parodied the iconic Disneyland ride and the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, creating an installation and video piece filled with gratuitous violence—a pointed commentary on Hollywood spectacle and systemic abuses, including prisoner mistreatment. In Train, Mechanical (2003–09), he presented two oversized animatronic figures of George W. Bush engaged in grotesque acts with pigs, confronting themes of power and moral corruption. His controversial 2014 sculpture Tree, exhibited publicly in Paris, drew widespread attention and backlash for its resemblance to a sex toy. McCarthy’s work has been exhibited internationally in major cities including New York, London, Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. He has held solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as Tate Modern, Moderna Museet, S.M.A.K., the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Haus der Kunst in Munich. His pieces have fetched seven-figure sums at auction.