Sean P. McGaughey

Region: Pacific Coast

Phalluses, orifices, and sticky projections jut in and out of Sean McGaughey’s vivid oil paintings. Though never exclaimed in full, parts emerge everywhere. He lays his disintegrating biomorphic forms in thick impasto, marking the kissing point between the tip of his brush and the apex of his canvas, revealing the trajectory of his hand—that ever-so-human extremity—against the trajectory of his work. This is enough to trigger a trypophobic response, an uncontrollable bodily reaction.

—Emi Kuriyama, 2013