Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy (born 1945 in Salt Lake City) is an American artist based in Los Angeles who works in performance, sculpture, installation, film and video. His work takes aim at mass media and consumer culture, with influences that include Joseph Beuys, Samuel Beckett and the Viennese Actionists. He is known for videos and performances such as Sailor's Meat, Bossy Burger and Caribbean Pirates. Paul McCarthy studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and took an MFA at the University of Southern California. He taught performance and video at UCLA from 1982 and made Heidi (1992) with Mike Kelley.