The New Yorker has an article this week profiling the intertwined lives of artists Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen and Clare Rojas.  Rojas, an artist living in Philadelphia, originally met Kilgallen and McGee through mail correspondence, and became close friends with the married couple.  After Kilgallen died of cancer in 1999, Rojas found herself growing closer McGee as she helped to care for his young daughter, and eventually married him.  “I think most people would just completely head the opposite direction, like, ‘Good luck with this, Barry,’ ” McGee says. “But she walked straight in.”

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Vanity Fair and Cadillac have commissioned artist Barry McGee to create a mural for the Mark Morris Dance Center in Fort Greene, which has just been completed. The untitled 96 x 67-foot piece is part of its “Art in the Streets” program, and took ten days start to finish. It will be featured in the December issue of Vanity Fair.
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Installation view of New Work, via Stuart Shave/Modern Art

Stuart Shave/Modern Art in London is currently showing an exhibition of new work by Barry Mcgee through August 13. McGee gained notoriety in the mid 1980’s for his work as a graffiti artist in San Francisco, California (produced under the tag “Twist”) and has captured a wide following in major contemporary galleries and museums over the last decade. In the series of untitled sculptural, wood panel and paper works on view at Stuart Shave/Modern Art, McGee attempts to negotiate the social message and aesthetics of street art with the commercial sterility of the gallery space. His geometric forms draw upon a Latin-American mural and decorative arts tradition while also paying tribute to a contemporary legacy of abstraction.

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André, Love Graffiti: Annabelle (2011).  All images by S. Zabrodski for Art Observed, unless otherwise stated.

MOCA’s exhibition, ‘Art in the Streets’ has proven to be a hugely popular, if not highly contentious, addition to L.A.’s summer arts scene. Located at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, the massive space includes the work of around 50 artists in a range of media including murals, photography, installations, graffitied vehicles, and re-created cityscapes. The show has come under fire for its glorification of what many perceive as vandalism. Indeed, the area surrounding Geffen Contemporary saw a spike in graffiti following the opening of ‘Art in the Streets’ in mid-April. As with any survey show, there have been many objections relating to both the inclusion and exclusion of certain artists. Even before the opening, MOCA Director, Jeffrey Deitch, drew criticism for the museum’s censorship of Italian street artist Blu’s mural depicting coffins covered with dollar bills. The mural was painted over after Deitch deemed it insensitive given its location near a veteran’s memorial. Both in spite of and because of these debates, the show has sparked a discourse that is significant for both artists and audience- since the show has opened, Banksy, one of the artists included in the exhibit,  has begun sponsoring free admission on Mondays to pull in even more viewers to an already record-breaking show. Bansky is quoted as saying, “I don’t think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it.” The exhibition was slated to travel to the Brooklyn Museum in 2012, but was recently cancelled due to financial constraints.

Swoon, Ice Queen (2011)

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Art Observed was on site for Barry McGee’s (aka “TWIST”) new work on the “Deitch Wall” on East Houston and Bowery. With longtime collaborator Josh Lazcano (aka “AMAZE”), Mcgee spray painted simple red tags of the names and crews of graffiti writers from both past and present generations. Watch the video above for AO’s short clip.

All Photos By Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors

In its past, the wall has exhibited work by Os Gemeos, Keith Haring, and, most recently, Shepard Fairey.

More images, text, and story after the jump.

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Kathy Grayson mid-smooch. Image courtesy Taylor Derwin for Art Observed.

Currently on view at the new art outfit, The Hole, on 104 Greene St. in Soho is “Not Quite Open for Business.” The show, which opened to much hype last night, runs until August 21st. The Hole is run by former directors at the legendary and now-closed Deitch Projects, Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman, in collaboration with former Executive Director at Deitch Projects, Suzanne Geiss. With the gallant goal of filling a hole in the downtown community, they are off to a running start.

The first exhibition is called “Not Quite Open for Business,” a conceptual group show of unfinished art, unfinished poems, and unfinished symphonies. The installation is designed by Taylor McKimens and the show includes over twenty artists from the community.

Left: Ben Jones, Unfinished Video, 2010, single channel DVD, edition of 5. Right: Kunle, Vomit, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

More text, images, and an interview with Kathy Grayson after the jump…

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Os Gemeos, Rinha, 2010

On show at the Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milan, is the much anticipated “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel), the second exhibition of works by Brazlian twins Os Gemeos (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo). This exhibition presents a series of entirely new, and previously unseen, works that include large canvases, musical sculpture-objects, mechanical and interactive site-specific installations actually created inside the gallery walls.

O Devoto, 2010
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“Beautiful Losers” via Ctrlshift

The documentary film “Beautiful Losers” directed by filmmaker and curator, Aaron Rose and co-directed by Joshua Leonard, had it’s theatrical premier on August 8 at the IFC Center in New York City. The film documents the artistic careers of the young American, Do-It-Yourself artists of the 1990s. This particular group of artists, that includes Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, and Ed Templeton, made their mark in the art world solely because it was something they loved to do. These underground artists were brought together under the roof of Alleged Gallery in the Lower East Side, and grew out of the 1990s street subcultures of New York City.

‘Beautiful Losers’ theatrical trailer [Beautiful Losers]
Now Screening | ‘Beautiful Losers’ [The Moment, NYTimes]
Beautiful Losers [Village Voice]
‘Beautiful Losers’ on the Lower East Side [NYSun]
Interview with Director Aaron Rose [indieWIRE]
Movie Review: Beautiful Losers [NYTimes]
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