McLaren returned to his roots as a visual artist in June 2008 with SHALLOW 1-21, a series of twenty-one “Musical Paintings” – short films created from re-worked clips from pornography set to music that he composed. It premiered in Art Basel Projects, and was shown by Creative Time in Times Square, New York; the Royal Academy of Arts, London; the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.