Barry McGee at The Rose Art Museum

Released on June 15, 2004
Contact: The Rose Art Museum, 781-736-3434

Artist selected for first Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Award

Barry McGee

The Ruth Ann Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence

April 29 - July 25, 2004
The Lois Foster Wing
Opening reception
Wednesday, Apr. 28, 6-9 p.m.

Robin Rhode: The Animators
April 29 - July 25, 2004
The Mildred S. Lee Gallery
Opening reception
Wednesday, Apr. 28, 6-9 p.m.

In the Spotlight (ongoing)
Selections from the Brandeis University Collections
through July 25, 2004
The Rose Art Museum building

Museum Hours
Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5 p.m.
Closed Monday; national and university holidays
Admission: $3.00

They are called taggers or graffiti artists. To some property owners and city administrators, they are nothing but nuisances. To artist Barry McGee, they are an inspiration. Disruptive, subversive, graffiti writers represent a kind of freedom -- a "closeness to the source," which McGee embraces in his own work. His complex installations, combining mural-like paintings, texts, photographs, drawings, assemblages, and kinetic sculptures, may not be fully revealed conceptually until the last drip of paint has dried. The results are a compelling vision of vitality and organized chaos, "juxtaposed with the precarious nature and sense of alienation of contemporary urban life" - Miuccia Prada and Patrizion Bertelli - Fondazione Prada.

Barry McGee will create a large-scale installation for The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University as the first recipient of the Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence award. This is the first solo exhibition on the East Coast of the internationally acclaimed artist. Curated by The Rose's Raphaela Platow, the exhibition will be on view from April 29 through July 25, 2004.

McGee's own graffiti markings first appeared under the artist's tagger name Twist in the 1980s on the walls and tunnels of San Francisco. A formally trained artist, McGee draws on a variety of influences, ranging from Mexican muralist painting, San Francisco Beat poets, and pivotal artistic forefathers such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Philip Guston. Interwoven with his large scale graphics and comic-strip works are found materials such as empty bottles, discarded syringes, abandoned cars, old sheet metal, and other fragments from the street, remade into sculptural installations. The artist's sad-eyed characters, painted as large-scale figures on the walls or as miniature versions on his found objects, voice the burden of deep existential uncertainty in a culture organized around economic and ethnic inequality.

Barry McGee's installation will be accompanied by a publication created in collaboration with the artist. The artist book is supported by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.

The exhibition is funded by the Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Award, the Massachusetts Cultural Council (a state agency), Esta and Robert Epstein, Sandra and Gerald Fineberg, Jill and Sherman Starr, and The Rose Membership Program.

In conjunction with Barry McGee, The Rose presents Robin Rhode: The Animators, a one-person show featuring five animated films by the artist. This is Rhode's second exhibition for The Rose; in 2003, his photo-based works and a public performance were part of the museum's Co-Existence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa exhibition. In this latest contribution, the artist's physical intervention with ephemeral imagery drawn on city streets is transformed into striking stop action animations. The artist approaches his unconventional practice through the high energy of street inventiveness and popular culture, and at the same time engages with the socio-political and ethnical implications of his sites.

Robin Rhode: The Animators is supported by The Rose Membership Program In the Spotlight is supported by members of The Rose Art Museum Membership Program and by donors of the works of art.

Digital images available upon request

About The Rose Art Museum

Founded in 1961, The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is New England's leading museum for modern and contemporary art. Throughout the academic year, The Rose organizes a series of temporary exhibitions and collection displays that present a mix of international, national, and local artists, and the Brandeis University art collections.