Published on the occasion of Dan McCarthy’s exhibition at Shoot the Lobster in New York in February 2013. McCarthy’s new painting style involve heavy layering and texturing of paint, over which a whitewash is applied and then removed to form text and line drawings. Shapes and washes of color bleed through the white and the textured, peeling letters give the paintings a feeling of deep age, as though the viewer is reading faded signs on a long-forgotten highway. The text refers to 70s and 80s pop culture - “X-ray Spex,” “New Age High Stepper,” “Blade Runner,” and the enigmatic “PK Dick.” Are these shop signs in some ghost town for hippies and punks? Are they specters from a time before the mass-produced, the slick, and the chrome-coated? How do we remember these words?
