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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