McCarthy is known for shocking, sexually charged pieces that feature benign cartoon and pop-culture characters such as Olive Oyl and Santa Claus, among others in a bacchanalia of blood and feces.

His 1974 video Hot Dog shoots to the heart of the adolescent "gross-out" as McCarthy tapes his penis into a hot dog bun, then packs his pie hole full of franks and wraps himself in gauze.

Another piece from the 70s called Sailor's Meat finds the artist dressed as a blonde hooker smeared with blood and "gnawing" a pile of raw meat.

With the technological advances of the past two decades, McCarthy has fashioned robots to do his dirty work for him: the kinetic sculpture The Gard...