Paul McCarthy’s latest exhibition SS EE Saint Santa Eva Elf Drawing Sessions 2025 with Lilith Stangenberg opened at Hauser & Wirth in Paris on 21 March, where it runs until 31 May. The exhibition brings together a new series of large-scale drawings alongside a six-channel video installation, continuing the leading contemporary American artist’s long-running exploration of performance and cultural symbolism.
Developed in collaboration with German actor Lilith Stangenberg, the works extend the pair’s ongoing A&E project, with both artists inhabiting the characters of Santa and the Elf. Through these figures, McCarthy revisits one of his most enduring motifs, using the familiar iconography of Santa Claus to examine corporate capitalism and the spectre of fascism. The drawings were produced during improvised performance sessions staged within McCarthy’s Los Angeles studio, a reconstructed interior of the artist’s childhood home.
Rather than presenting finished images alone, the exhibition situates drawing as part of a broader performative process. The accompanying multi-screen video installation places viewers within the unfolding action, emphasising McCarthy’s interest in instability, authorship and interpretation. The exhibition offers a continuation of the artist’s provocative and often unsettling interrogation of cultural myths and the structures that sustain them.
The exhibition is on view through Sunday 31 March at 26 bis rue François 1er, Paris 75008.
