Since the end of the 1960s Paul McCarthy (USA, °1945), one of the most significant living artists, has been steadily working on what has since become an impressive body of work. He focuses on sex and aggression and in doing so criticizes the symbolic violence in our culture, which is teeming with mass media and family values. Paintings, videos, performances and sculptures are the arsenal for a scorching attack on the culture which the artist lives in.

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The exhibition at the Middelheim Museum demonstrates that even today it is still hard to fully grasp McCarthy. He continues to surprise us, at present with monumental inflatable sculptures, which can be up to thirty metres high. The creations are reminiscent of the inflatable figures used in the ad world. McCarthy has appropriated an existing phenomenon and literally disfigures it. On the occasion of the exhibition he has created five new works. The eight works on show are dispersed throughout the statue park. The unique character of Antwerp’s statue park provides McCarthy with the opportunity to show a large group of inflatable sculptures for the very first time. A worldwide first!