Paul McCarthy is widely considered to be one of the most influential and groundbreaking contemporary American artists. Born in 1945, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, he first established a multi-faceted artistic practice, which sought to break the limitations of painting by using unorthodox materials such as bodily fluids and food. He has since become known for visceral, often hauntingly humorous work in a variety of mediums – from performance, photography, film and video, to sculpture, drawing and painting.

McCarthy earned a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969, and an MFA in multimedia, film and art from USC in 1973. For 18 years, he taught performance, video, installation, and art history in the New Genres Department at UCLA, where he influenced future generations of West Coast artists. McCarthy began collaborating with the LAFMS in the late 70s, and in 1995 was among the founding members of Extended Organ.

As part of a wider programme of visual and sonic art, on July 9 at the nearby Rio Cinema, Paul McCarthy will introduce a selection of his pioneering video performance works, from the early Black and White Tapes to the UK premiere of a new episode from the ongoing A&E project with Lilith Stangenberg.

Conceived as both a survey and an introduction, this one-night event offers a rare opportunity to encounter the groundbreaking video practice of one of the most influential and provocative artists of our time in a focused cinema setting.