PAUL MCMAHON
PIZZA BOXES
FEBRUARY 9–MARCH 30, 2020
321 Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings on used pizza boxes by Pictures Generation artist Paul McMahon (b. 1950, San Diego, CA). Pizza Boxes marks McMahon's second show at the gallery, following his 2015 exhibition: 44, which featured 44 works over 44 years.
Since 2018, McMahon has been using marker and acrylic on discarded pizza boxes found in and around Woodstock, NY, painting over and between the lines of quaint dining and landscape scenes pre-printed on the surfaces of the cardboard boxes. While the boxes are recognizable mass produced items, when collected and arranged typologically, the diversity in print design becomes clear, raising questions about regional pizza box distributors, how imagery is used in packaging design, the convergence of high and low art, and pizza, which everyone has an opinion about.
McMahon was deeply involved in the downtown scene of fellow Pictures Generation artists such as Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, and Cindy Sherman, and his most recognizable artworks, which were included in a 2009 Pictures Generations show at the NY Met, are his pastels on newspapers and text on postcards from the Nixon era. In the late 1980s, McMahon removed ads and PSAs from the NYC subway, carefully obscured the text with paint (in a pre-Photoshop gesture) to reveal a pure image, and returned the ads to their original contexts. Performative and punk, actions such as these are the most similar to McMahon’s current work on pizza boxes. By filling in spaces with colored marker, merging elements of the image with similar colors, and painting over text, McMahon alters the scenes to create unique landscapes that feel familiar yet disconcerting, such as Rome’s Coliseum being flooded, a town enveloped by an apocalyptic sky, or a charming cafe scene with an unfurled Russian flag.
Paul McMahon (b. 1950, San Diego, CA) is a musician, artist, writer, producer, curator, minister, and part-time mailman. His work spans painting, sculpture, video, musical recordings, and works on paper. In the early 1970s, McMahon began organizing exhibitions, parties, and rock shows in Cambridge, MA and New York City, playing a vital role in bringing together artists in the post-Conceptual and pre-Pictures generation. During the 1970s, McMahon created a diverse body of work addressing corruption in government, the art world, and pictures themselves. In later decades, he continued producing work as live performances and video, satirizing politicians and the advertising world, often from a shamanic orientation.
From 1972-75, he organized over 30 conceptual and performance art shows at Project Inc., his independently run temporary art space in Cambridge, MA. He has played in bands such as Daily Life (with Glenn Branca, Barbara Ess, and Christine Hahn) and A Band, performed parodic routines in shows such as I’m With Stupid at the Kitchen (1977), and duelled one-liner jokes dressed as a giant potato on national TV against Soupy Sales. McMahon has released ten albums of original music, published two books of humor, and performed as the Rock’n’Roll Therapist since 1980. He received a fellowship in New Genres from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990 and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College acquired the Project Inc. archive in 2010. McMahon graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Pomona College in 1972 and received an MS in Art Education from MassArt in 1975. He is the proprietor of the Mothership, an everything center in Woodstock, NY.
Recent solo shows include Eye Heart Unicorn at 9 Herkimer Place (Brooklyn, NY); Me at 3A Gallery (New York, NY); and 44 at 321 Gallery (Brooklyn, NY). McMahon’s work has been exhibited in select group shows such as Innocence at Super Dutchess Gallery (New York, NY); Points of Light in a Nocturnal World at 7 Herkimer Place (Brooklyn, NY); Stairway to Heaven at Susan Inglett Gallery (New York, NY); All Suffering Soon To End! at Callicoon Fine Arts Gallery (Callicoon, NY); and The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984, curated by Douglas Eklund at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY).
SELECT PRESS:
Andrew Russeth, “Paul McMahon: Pizza Boxes” Surface Magazine, February, 2020
Kari Rittenbach, "Paul McMahon," Artforum, January 2016 (PDF)