{"id":64400,"date":"2025-05-01T01:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T01:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/64400\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T01:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T01:30:10","slug":"in-im-listening-barry-mcgee-celebrates-positivity-amid-distress-and-overwhelm-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/64400\/","title":{"rendered":"In ‘I’m Listening,’ Barry McGee Celebrates Positivity Amid Distress and Overwhelm \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBarry McGee<\/a> lives in San Francisco\u2014he was born there and he lives there,\u201d critic and curator Richard Leydier opens in an essay accompanying the artist\u2019s current solo exhibition, I\u2019m Listening, at Perrotin<\/a>. \u201cThis fact is important because his art would be profoundly different had he chosen to move to another American city.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGee draws inspiration from the West Coast subculture he grew up within, surrounded by skaters, surfers, and street artists. He has long been interested in marginalized communities, societal outcasts, and those seen as subversive.<\/p>\n

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The artist is a key figure of the Mission School<\/a>, which emerged in the early 1990s through the work of a number of artists who were connected to the now-defunct San Francisco Art Institute. Other influential artists include Margaret Kilgallen (1967-2001), Ruby Neri, Claire Rojas, and more, all of whom explore the intersections between urban realism, graffiti, American folk art, and \u201clowbrow\u201d aesthetics undergirded by social activism.<\/p>\n

McGee adopted monikers like \u201cTwist\u201d and \u201cLydia Fong\u201d in his own graffiti writing and also explored painting and printmaking, which he still taps into in his expansive, multidisciplinary practice. He explores \u201cdynamic panel assemblages, complex patterns reminiscent of op art, and immersive installations that explore the human condition,\u201d the gallery says.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Listening erupts with color, pattern, and texture through a bounty of sculptures, paintings, prints, and assemblages that reimagine everyday objects. Surfboards are cloaked in optical geometric patterns in acrylic paint, and McGee\u2019s signature grimacing, cartoonish faces appear on collages or in place of labels on glass bottles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI focus on everything that is shitty on our little planet right now,\u201d McGee says. Expressions of disgust or surprise are paired with playfulness, though. He adds, \u201cI also celebrate all these incredible things that humans invent to stay positive and healthy.\u201d I\u2019m Listening continues through May 24 in Paris.<\/p>\n

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