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Barry McGee

Barry McGee is an American artist. He is known for graffiti art, and a pioneer of the Mission School art movement. McGee is known by his monikers: Twist, Ray Fong, Bernon Vernon, and P.Kin.

Life and education
Barry McGee was born in 1966 in San Francisco, California. McGee graduated from El Camino High School in South San Francisco, California. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where he graduated in 1991 with a concentration in painting and printmaking. McGee was married to the artist Margaret Kilgallen in 1999, who later died of breast cancer in 2001. They have a daughter named Asha. After Kilgallen's death, McGee married artist Clare Rojas in 2005. == Work ==
Work
"Acclaimed for his work in the street as a graffiti artist and for his painted installations in galleries, museums and art festivals around the world, Barry McGee crafts a visual language that makes itself understood. It is public, addressing social concerns of urban life, and very private, elaborating a unique personal style that focuses on humanity, one painstakingly detailed, fine brush-painted image at a time." ==Career==
Career
parking garage (now torn down)McGee was a central figure in the graffiti art scene in San Francisco from the late 1980s and into the 1990s. As Twist, he became well known nationally by his stylized black and white pictographic flathead screw graffiti 'throw ups'. Later he was part of the Mission School art movement based in the aesthetics of the Mission District of San Francisco. McGee's installations consist of simple bold paintings which are influenced by Islamic patterns on tiles, vernacular sign painting, or use caricatures of the destitute. These paintings are clustered together in combination with photographs of other graffiti writers. Older work included layering of shapes, and buff marks, backgrounds of drips painted directly on the gallery wall. He has painted stylized portraits on empty bottles of liquor, flattened spray cans, and wrecked vehicles for art shows. He has collaborated frequently with Amaze, allowing him to paint the exterior and interior of the galleries exhibiting McGee's work. They have also utilized realistic moving mechanical human figures that appear to be tagging gallery walls. The market value of his work rose considerably after 2001 as a result of his being included in the Venice Biennale and other major exhibitions. As a result, much of his San Francisco street art has been scavenged or stolen. == Controversies ==
Controversies
In September 1999, a 64-foot-long, 8-foot-high mural made up of 300 pieces, made by Barry McGee and financially sponsored by the Luggage Store Gallery and the Creative Work Fund, was stolen off a vacant commercial building in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco. It was never recovered. In 2004, as part of an exhibit at San Francisco's City Hall, McGee was involved in a controversy regarding the Adidas Y1 HUF, a shoe for which he provided the artwork. This gave rise to a protest campaign by some Asian-Americans who claimed that the picture on the shoe's tongue depicts a racist stereotype. He stated that the drawing was a portrait of himself as an 8-year-old child. ==Selected exhibitions==
Selected exhibitions
• 1999: The Buddy System, Deitch Gallery in New York City, NYC • 1999: HOSS, Rice Gallery in Houston, TX • 2001: with Todd James, and Stephen Powers, Venice Biennale • 2004: Barry McGee and Josh Lazcano, Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco, CA • 2004: Rose Art Museum • 2006: Featured in Beautiful Losers exhibition at Circleculture Gallery in Berlin, Germany • 2006–2007: LOFT installation at Roberts & Tilton Gallery in Los Angeles, CA • 2007: Watari Museum of Contemporary Art • 2008: Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art • 2008: The Big Sad (With Clare Rojas), Riverside Art Museum • 2008: Life on Mars Carnegie International • 2008: Ratio 3 in San Francisco, CA • 2009: McGee / Templeton / Pettibon exhibition curated by Aaron Rose at Circleculture Gallery in Berlin, Germany • 2009–2010: Biennale de Lyon, France • 2010: The Last Night (With HuskMitNavn), A.L.I.C.E. gallery in Brussels, Belgium • 2012: Retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum • 2019: The Other Side, solo show, Perrotin Gallery, Hong Kong • 2021: Fuzz Gathering, solo show, Galerie Perrotin, Paris • 2022: Everyday Sunrise, solo show, Perrotin, Seoul • 2024: Old Mystified, solo show, Berggruen, San Francisco ==See also==
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