Barry McGee
American, b. 1966, San Francisco, California, based in San Francisco, California
Interview conducted in San Francisco CA on May 25, 2005 for the 2008 documentary film Beautiful Losers.
rawfootagefilmarchive.com
A revered figure in the West Coast graffiti subculture (typically associated with the skater and surfer communities), Barry McGee makes drawings, paintings, and mixed-media installations inspired by urban culture that incorporate elements such as empty liquor bottles and spray-paint cans, tagged signs, wrenches, and scrap wood or metal. McGee is also a graffiti artist, having produced work on the streets since the 1980s under the tag name “Twist”; his signature motif is the face of a man with sagging, tired eyes, rendered in an efficient linear style. McGee was interviewed on the rooftop of The Luggage Store Gallery.
