Barry McGee

Untitled (Hand-finished)

€3,500

Artwork

Edition of 78

Hand-finished

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Hand-finished, 28-layer silkscreens from a Bay Area legend.

Our first collaboration with Barry McGee is a greatest hits style montage of his life in San Francisco. From disgruntled looking Everyman heads – an allegory for the city’s ‘invisible’ homeless population – to acronyms for the graffiti crews he tags with, the untitled print rewards those familiar with the artist's expansive and experimental practice. Abstract geometries fill the gaps, providing “areas to rest the eye” and loading the print with McGee's distinct aesthetic code.

Once printed, McGee will add unique details to each print with spray paint and gouache. Illustrative additions introduce familiar faces from his esoteric library of references and symbols, while unplanned dots and lines in grey nod to the graffiti he still sprays today. Testing the process at Brothers Marshall in Malibu, faces, animals and acronyms were added to the right hand side of the print. For the edition itself, expect more of the same and (knowing Barry) a few surprises too.

“I will be interacting with each print in a different way. I try to keep that element of unpredictability when composing work.”

The underlying artworks – 14 colour silkscreens printed in 28 sharp-edged layers – have been created in close collaboration with expert printmakers at Make-Ready in London.

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Behind the scenes

Barry McGee walking away from a wall – the image is partially-obscured by 4 sky blue circles

Barry McGee3 collaborationsBarry McGee has lived in San Francisco his whole life. He's travelled across the world to exhibit at prestigious galleries and museums but still finds inspiration in the unexpected beauty of his home. His journey to becoming an artist started back in the 1980s. "We were on the fringe," says McGee, talking about the friends he used to do graffiti with as a teenager. "It's the outcasts, all of the straggly kids that figure out how to work the system." After finishing art school in 1991, Barry became a key member of the Mission School. The group's low-fi aesthetic drew from the grittiness and beauty of city life. "It's kind of dirty, kind of broken," says McGee. "It's basically the whole mess of it that makes it work."

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Reviews from Avant collectors

Gorgeous quality and print. Thank you!
Review of Shelter
beautiful! thank you
Review of Sierra
first class experience from start to finish. really impressed with the work and with the Avant Arte process. 💯
Review of Guardian
love the packaging of the print. superb.
Review of Super Glow
absolutely stunning print. framing was fantastic as well. very happy, thank you
Review of Portrait of Francis Bacon
Having purchased many items from outside NZ, I can say with sincerity, that the communications, packaging and delivery have been exemplary! A copybook experience for an online, overseas art purchase. Thank you!
Review of Out of the Dark
Thanks for keeping me in the loop during the entire process. The packaging of the item was exceptional.
Review of Portrait of Maya #10
Great experience all around, thank you! I love what you do and the fact that it allows me to own artist works whose originals I wouldn't be able to afford.
Review of Paysage d’Intérieur (printemps)

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