About Me
Project Inc. was a community art center in Cambridge, MA, that hosted afterschool art classes for kids, and had a darkroom and ceramics studio for adults. From 1972-75 Paul McMahon presented a series of over 30 mostly one night shows of conceptual and performance artists who, although obscure at the time, have gone on to be better known. Laurie Anderson's first Boston performance, David Salle's first solo show, early exposure of Matt Mullican and James Welling. First Boston solo shows for Dan Graham, Lawrence Weiner, Martha Wilson, Alice Aycock, Wolfgang Stoerchle, Jack Goldstein, Michael Asher, David Askevold and many more.
Project Inc. ended when Paul moved to NY to be Assistant Director to Helene Winer at Artists Space in NYC. His early work was influential among his peers in the development of a new sensibility. This generation of art students, raised on conceptual art, was looking for ways to return the pictorial baby to the art discourse tub without spilling too much of the bathwater of intellectual rigor in the process. An upcoming show (2009) called THE PICTURES GENERATION at the Metropolitan Museum will examine the genesis of this scene. This survey of around thirty artists will include several examples of his early work.
By the time this group started gaining traction in the art world he had jumped ship for the overstimulation of the punk art rock scene later morphing into a guitar picking singer-songwriter on a spiritual quest which brought him (back?) to Woodstock. Throughout he has continued to grow and change in his art work. His show I GIVE THANKS FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE in December 2007, has pieces from 1970 to 2007 and most of the years in between.
for more: www.paulmcmahon.tv
