“Barry McGee” Opens at UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
After witnessing Mr. McGee working on his vast installation of the “Street Market” last year for the LA MoCA “Arts in the Streets” exhibit, we can imagine him working steadily and quietly, half meander and half engineer, on this retrospective of his prolific career so far.
He likes a certain colorful eye-popping clutter, in an ordered way that makes sense and envelops even as it unfolds. Words, signage, objects, color, patterns, characters, odes to freight riding and garbage sifting, finding gold in a dumpster – part of the DIY ethos and graphic designer’s hand that took hold among the many Street Artists who followed his 1990s San Francisco forays from graffiti.
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
“Throughout his career,” writes Alex Baker in the exhibition catalog, “Barry McGee has continued to surprise and contradict expectations.” Time passes, his tags and monikers cycled through, and this is now called “mid-career”, an exhibition of the timeline up until this splattered dot. Bringing the street and the studio and the exhibitions under one large roof, the generous McGee gives us a huge attic of curiosities, a treasure-filled, salon-style, tag-burnished buffet.
We are happy to know that this exhibition will travel to ICA in Boston next spring. We will be there.
We want thank photographer Gareth Gooch for sending these exclusive images for BSA readers from his time spent with Barry as the artist worked throughout the museum galleries to install the show.
‘The huge dripping “SNITCH” tag on the exterior of the brutalist concrete Berkeley Art Museum exterior was my first sign that this was going to be a truly great exhibit. Among all the visual sensory stimulation, at our first introduction I was impressed with Barry’s attention to his guest. In the crunch of finalizing the installation to open in a few hours, Barry was calm and generous with his time allowing me to shoot without restrictions.
The beautiful concrete and glass galleries were filled with paintings, installations and collections of multiple works in such proliferation, I had to wonder if he ever slept! The scale of work from small ephemera collections to his signature large scale installations with life sized “taggers” and upended FONG TV delivery van and store fronts was awesome! His work is so unique and eclectic, I honestly felt I was in the presence of a modern master!” – Gareth Gooch
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee installation. (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
Barry McGee at BAM/PFA is organized by Director Lawrence Rinder, with Assistant Curator Dena Beard and will run through December 9, 2012. http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
BSA founders appear in new documentary on HBO debuting November 17 and write the introduction for new book on world’s best known elusive street artist. Bot...
CALL FOR ACTION: PARTICIPATE IN A NEW VIDEO PROJECT Today we're lending a hand to Street Artist and fine artist AKUT, who is using his name and privilege to organize a new video project that he ho...
A highly effective work of political street art in the heart of Alexanderplatz, Berlin, this enormous blood-red “STOP WARS” slogan has been recently refreshed after fading. The message was undoub...
In advance of Moniker in Brooklyn this May, we are interviewing some of the artists who are influenced both by street practice and fine art as the contemporary urban art category continues to evolve...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. Plain Brutality Again: Jacob Blake.2. INDECLINE: Get Dead - Pepper Spray 3. Shepard Fairey:...