Artist Talk: Barry McGee

September 26, 2018

Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara presents

Artist Talk: Barry McGee

 

San Francisco, CA-based artist Barry McGee will speak in conversation with Associate Curator Alexandra Terry about his work currently on view at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) in Barry McGee: SB Mid Summer Intensive

 

Admission is FREE. RSVP here to reserve your seat. Please arrive on time as theater seating is limited. Any open seats will be made available on a first-come, first-serve basis after 6 pm. Should you need to modify or cancel your reservation for any reason, please email engagement@mcasantabarbara.org at your earliest convenience.

 

About the Artist:

Born in 1966, Barry McGee is arguably the most well-known and influential of the recent surge of artists from the Bay Area to have international success. He was raised in San Francisco, studied painting and printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute (graduating in 1991), and continues to live and work in the city. McGee's boldly graphic, colorful work incorporates a multitude of influences (including, for example, graffiti, American folk art, and Op Art), but is most immediately evocative of the urban street culture from which he hails. Engaging the ways in which the city's unique vernacular translates into artistic imagery, McGee celebrates the diversity, distinctive characters (one of his well-known motifs is a crawling, sad-sack bum), and neighborhood communities of the inner-city. His work critiques consumerist culture and the constant backdrop of commercialism in everyday interactions; rejecting the billboard and chain store, McGee instead finds inspiration in the seeming randomness of graffiti, the endless uploading of images on the internet, and the creative styling of misfits. McGee's work succeeds in its sensitive balance between anarchy and collaboration, resulting in environments which immerse the viewer in his singular, yet inclusive, vision.

His work has been the subject of exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California; the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Prada Foundation, Milan; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland; and the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among others.

 

About Alexandra Terry:

Alexandra Terry is Associate Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB). As an independent curator with a focus on emerging artists, Terry has curated exhibitions in the US and the UK, in addition to contributing to contemporary art publications. From 2008 to 2015 she was curator at the MOP Foundation, a London-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting Iranian contemporary art on a broad platform outside of Iran. Terry cofounded P.A.S.T. Projects in Bermondsey, London in 2009 and from 2010-2014 she was an active member of the GANDT artists' collective. Terry holds a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO and a MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK. 

 

TIMES: Wednesday, September 26 at 6:00 pm

TICKETS: Free Admission RSVP here to reserve your seat. 

 

All seating is general admission. All ticket sales are final at the time of purchase. There are no refunds or exchanges. For all performances late seating is on a limited basis, or is not allowed at all once the performance begins. Please plan your arrival time accordingly.