GAP (White Snow), 2009, Charcoal, oil stick, collage on paper, 128 x 115 inches

More than 12 large-scale works in color and two rooms full of smaller black and white drawings make up this show of never before seen work at Hauser and Wirth. A comment on the German folk tale of Snow White as well as the Disney version of the story, the imagery includes dwarfs with phallus noses and a masturbating Snow White. In the large works on view downstairs, McCarthy makes connections between the virginal Snow White and other “icons of femininity” ranging from the Mona Lisa to Paris Hilton. In the work GAP he includes images from porn magazines, Gap advertisements, an ad for “1-800-275-TITS” and pages from auction catalogs all enmeshed with drawings of dwarfs and unidentifiable markings. McCarthy’s carefully crafted composition also involves cut outs throughout the paper. The collage aspects remind me of Chris Ofili’s work while the use of pop imagery is Warhol-like and the markings are Cy Twombly-esque. Affixing a paintbrush, tape and a rubber glove to the paper in another work is reminiscent of Jasper Johns and Rauschenberg. Utilizing techniques used by well-known male artists such as these, McCarthy asks the viewer to ponder the role of women in art and society at large as the object of the female gaze. The huge scale of the works forces the viewer to look at and be confronted with imagery that is usually considered taboo. While I would not necessarily want this work in my home and I was not certain how I felt about it initially, it has been sitting with me for a few days and it certainly grabbed my attention. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.