SEAN McCARTHY

BATHERS

OCTOBER 2021

Delirious from the light and heat. Crawling through sand, grainy irritations in every crevice. Beginning to black out. A grimace we hope will pass as a smile, fumbling around on flippers—slapstick desperation eliciting laughter from hidden adversaries. Guarding against attacks from all sides. Looking for something to eat, fine white foam bubbling on our lips. Skittering across dunes, tripping over rocks. Now buried up to our necks, pushing our eyes up toward the sky. Held under smothering waves of viscous briny fluid—we wriggled out once, but the water is rising.

--
Sean McCarthy (B. 1976, San Antonio, TX) has exhibited at venues such as Marlborough Chelsea, Fredericks & Freiser, and Essex Flowers (where his 2020 solo exhibition was named a must-see show by the editors of Artforum) in New York; One in the Other and Cubitt Gallery in London; and Ada Gallery in Richmond, among others. He received a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University. He is currently Associate Professor of Art at Lehman College of the City University of New York and lives and works in the Hudson Valley.