7 Bangers: Dan McCarthy

For his sixth solo show at Anton Kern Gallery, New York artist Dan McCarthy presents a series of new sculptures entitled 7 Bangers.

Seven Bangers Artist Statement 

This group of seven ceramic sculptures titled Seven Bangers was started in 2016. The Bangers are a linear extension of the Facepots that I began in 2012 and finished in 2017.

 While the Seven Bangers serve less as vessels in a physical and symbolic sense they double down as proposals for vessels in an emotional sense.

By physically working the Bangers from the inside out as visibly indicated in the poked, pricked and patched surfaces, the physical process of making and marking becomes the artworks subject. Through this hands on and intuitive process the Bangers serve as animistic objects whose function is simply the act of Affirmation.

The Bangers eye and nose features, poked through by my thumbs from the inside out, serve as windows reiterating the gift of sight and smell. By adorning the Bangers facial features with gold and silver lustre the emotional and spiritual potential of our physical senses become reinforced and reiterated.

Made from a sandy groggy clay, the satin matte glaze is intentionally over-fired. This over- firing forces the glazed surface into a unique realm like burnished, waxed leather or melted ice-cream on beach sand.

 The relationship between the ceramic Banger and the steel base is better understood as something similar to the crows-nest on a ships mast or perhaps a parking meter on a steel post embedded in the sidewalk.

In the case of the crows nest, the parking meter and the Seven Bangers themselves, the base is at the service of a humanistic, physical action where eye level and 360 degree access becomes imperative.

 – Dan McCarthy 

March 2019 

Dan McCarthy (b. 1962, Honolulu, HI) is an American artist living and working in New York. His work, which includes paintings, drawings, and sculptures, has been exhibited internationally since the 1990s. Recent solo exhibitions include Bill Brady Gallery, Miami, FL (2018); Tennis Elbow, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2018); and Venus Over Los Angeles, LA, CA (2015). Recent group shows include Pure Joy, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL (2019); Pageant of Inconceivables, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY (2018); Summer Trip, Tripoli Gallery of Contemporary Art, Southhampton, NY (2017). His work is included in several public collections, including ICA Miami, Miami; Aïshti Foundation, Beirut and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.