San Francisco-based artist Barry McGee has developed a unique and distinctive style which combines the influence of street art, graffiti and tagging with a more formal approach to abstraction, drawing on the conventions of contemporary painting and sculpture and particularly Hispanic and Latin American decorative arts.

This wall mounted installation contains 213 framed works which include a combination of beautifully rendered, original biro drawings of street people, hand painted abstract designs and both original and found photographs of street art, graffiti and tagging, street culture, labels and diagrams. McGee created the work intuitively over several days, working with each framed panel to create a composition that is rich, elegant, classical and multi-layered in terms of its references to the visual arts and to 21st-century life. This work was presented by the Art Fund through Art Fund International. Birmingham and Walsall art galleries are working together to build up a collection exploring the metropolis and urban environment under the Art Fund International scheme.

Provenance

The artist.


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