August 29, 2012

Barry McGee/BAM review by Artforum


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Street Smarts
San Francisco
08.29.12
(click on any image for slideshow)
left: Artist Philip Huang
photo by Styrous®
right: Barry McGee and BAM/PFA curator Dena Beard
photo by Leif Hedendal

THE SIDEWALKS surrounding the Berkeley Art Museum last Thursday were filled with dazed and eager newbie scholars who brazenly streamed through crosswalks, taunting drivers on the first day of classes at Cal. It also happened to be the opening of Barry McGee’s rollicking home-turf midcareer survey at the BAM. McGee and his street-inflected artwork have always had an ambivalent relationship with authority, and it was a fitting and yet somehow awkward merging of events. The university is a zone of both youthful energy and bureaucratic entanglements: During the opening, there were reports of campus police having hassled the artist late the previous night as he tagged the outside of the museum with the word SNITCH. Officials intervened and the paint kept spraying.

Heavy metal played at a subdued volume in the massive, open-plan museum, but the vibe was calm and respectful, not wild or iconoclastic. More youth culture than art-worldly. The pervasive sangfroid had something to do with the fact that the sun hadn’t set and the bars were outside on the patio. The beer (microbrew kegger, fittingly) ran out quickly. Wonderfully fragrant marijuana clouds wafted over the crowd with regularity. There was a burst of excitement, a rock star moment, when the notoriously shy artist made his way to the patio. He was immediately crushed by fans, one brandishing a bike frame with McGee graphics. The rest clutched cell phones with which they captured the moment. The artist amiably signed the bike.

left: The Filth Mongers
right: BAM/PFA director Lawrence Rinder and
photos by Styrous®

To cope with his ambivalence about being contained in a museum, McGee brings the outside in. The show’s centerpiece is a stage set with scenes of gritty urbanity, complete with animatronic taggers. A collaborative version in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’s “Art in the Streets” exhibition was dense and dark. The Berkeley version—a towering, painting-encrusted faux storefront in BAM’s massive Brutalist atrium—seems more plazalike, with plenty of open space to stroll. Throngs of fans comfortably mingled around the work. MoCA director and McGee champion Jeffrey Deitch was probably the most notable figure besides the artist, and he was spotted ambling through the crowd with a slight limp. The music grew louder as dusk settled into evening. The Filth Mongers, a band comprising anonymous McGee pals (many of whom helped in the months-long install), performed a set wearing paper bags on their heads.

The show’s objects exude a kind of accessibility and vulnerability. Many of them are displayed casually, outside of vitrines, under the gentle watch of work-study attendants. In a mezzanine gallery, curator and BAM/PFA director Lawrence Rinder told me that the show was “a moment of reflection, of where we are, and where we are going.” Before I could fully process that, lanky Berkeley-based performance artist Philip Huang knelt on the floor in devotional pose and began a seemingly guerrilla (but actually sanctioned) performance that involved cross-dressing, a large stuffed animal, and a neti pot, which the artist used to rinse his nostrils, letting the water rinse his bare foot. The puerile gross-out factor was effective enough, though its relationship to McGee’s work was tenuous. “They said I could do whatever I wanted,” Huang told me. The DJ picked up from there.

Things were quieter and notably more adult at the afterparty at Pizzaiolo in Oakland. The entire restaurant was booked by Ratio 3, McGee’s SF gallery, and guests were plied with primo Italian nibbles and California reds. Deitch sequestered himself in a booth (and admitted he was looking forward to a public conversation with Rinder on McGee’s work, though MoCA’s controversies seemed off the table), while Adam Sheffer of Cheim & Reid, which just picked up the artist, chatted with collectors. A few of us played genteel games of bocce ball on the patio, while McGee kept a low profile, visiting friends, seeming to enjoy the calm. They sent us home with McGee tote bags, while the restaurant offered its remaining loaves of the day’s house-baked bread. Like the exhibition we celebrated, it was a hearty gesture, which we happily accepted.
left: LA MoCA director Jeffrey Deitch and Dena Beard. 
photo by Glen Helfand
right: Ratio 3 owner Chris Perez and Cheim & Read's Adam Sheffer. 
photo by Styrous®


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August 27, 2012

Barry McGee @ the BAM/Introduction

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A retrospective of San Francisco graffiti artist Barry McGee opened at The Berkeley Art Museum on August 24. The exhibition is so massive and complex, it took two months to install it. I had a great time doing the shoot for the opening reception on August 23 and it was more than worth the wait.

The exhibition is huge and I got so many photos, I divided them into two sections:

The Barry McGee Exhibition

The Barry McGee Reception

Although there is very limited notation on those pages; I let the photos, which can be viewed as a slideshow, tell the story. All narration has been kept to this page.

In addition, there is a Barry McGee/BAM review by Artforum.

Enjoy, Styrous®
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During the reception, entertainment was provided by DJ Damon and Filth Mongers (a term for someone who is involved in the dealing or trading of filthy or obscene material according to Urban Dictionary). Filth Mongers can be heard and seen on Vimeo and images of them are on their Flickr page.

There was a performance piece by Philip Huang that referenced the McGee/Adidas controversy (see below).

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 The exhibition . . .

When you walk into the museum one of the first things you see is a van standing upright on its front end with a pyramid of men standing on the back end of it. The man at the top is tagging the wall of the museum, his arm is in motion. It is a sculpture so real I honestly thought it was real men doing the act right then and there. I thought to myself, "Gocha!!!!!!!". So far, so good.

On the ground floor is a full-scale mom-and-pop shop titled “Fong’s 99¢ Store” (Fong is one of the monikers McGee uses, as well as Lydia Fong, Ray Fong, Bernon Vernon, P.Kin, Ray Virgil, Twist, Twister, Twisty and Twisto).

Next to Fong's is a tower of TV monitors which made me think, appropriately, of the biblical Tower of Babel.

On an upper level of the museum, is one of his art pieces, a wooden sculpture of a man’s head. The head mechanically and repetitiously beats its forehead against the wall of the gallery. No explanation needed for that one.

Everything is decay and disorder, a hodge-podge (or so it seems) of everything representing modern urban life.

 . . . and a little background.

Born in San Francisco in 1966, McGee graduated from El Camino High School in South San Francisco. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991.

He came out of the Mission School art movement and graffiti boom in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early nineties.

McGee was involved in a controversy regarding the Adidas Y1 HUF, a shoe for which he provided the artwork. The
artwork generated a protest campaign by Asian-Americans who claimed the picture on the shoe's tongue depicted a racist stereotype; as a result, Adidas pulled the sneaker from the market. In a press release in March of 2006, McGee stated that the drawing was a portrait of himself as an eight-year-old child; he is half Chinese. The performance piece by Philip Huang during the opening reception on August 23 referenced that controversy.

The Barry McGee exhibition was reviewed by Artforum. The exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum runs through December 9, 2012.


photos by Styrous® can be seen at:
Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Exhibition
Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Reception


Styrous® ~ August 27, 2012
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Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Reception

                           
                                               photo by Styrous®
photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

The tower of TV monitors which made me think, 
appropriately, of the biblical Tower of Babel.
photo by Styrous®
 
photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

 DJ Damon spun new wave & punk music
photo by Styrous®
 

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

 photo by Styrous®
photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®




photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

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Filth Mongers, a term for someone who is involved in the dealing or trading of filthy or obscene material (Urban Dictionary), provided additional entertainment.

 Filth Mongers in the mosh pit
photo by Styrous®

Filth Mongers
photo by Styrous®

Filth Mongers
photo by Styrous®

Filth Mongers  can be heard and seen on Vimeo 
and images of them are on their Flickr page.


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Filth Mongers were followed by a performance piece by
Philip Huang which referenced the Adidas controversy.
 
photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

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photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®


for information on the Barry McGee exhibition see:
Barry McGee @ the BAM/Intro

also see:
Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Exhibition

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Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Exhibition

BAM Barry McGee exhibition poster 
poster photo by Craig Costello
photo of poster by Styrous®


 (click on any image for slideshow)
Craig Costello, Roseville Trainyards, 1995
BAM Barry McGee exhibition advertisement
installation photo by Styrous®


photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

 photo by Styrous®

 photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®

photo by Styrous®


for information on the exhibition see:
Barry McGee @ the BAM/Intro


also see:
Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Reception


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