Barry McGee

Barry McGee has lived in San Francisco his whole life. He's travelled across the world to exhibit at prestigious galleries and museums but still finds inspiration in the unexpected beauty of his home. His journey to becoming an artist started back in the 1980s. "We were on the fringe," says McGee, talking about the friends he used to do graffiti with as a teenager. "It's the outcasts, all of the straggly kids that figure out how to work the system." After finishing art school in 1991, Barry became a key member of the Mission School. The group's low-fi aesthetic drew from the grittiness and beauty of city life. "It's kind of dirty, kind of broken," says McGee. "It's basically the whole mess of it that makes it work."

In the 1990s, McGee's profile rose exponentially. By the 2000s, he was well-established as an artist of his generation. In the decades since, his monumental installations and assemblages have continued to evolve. "I always want it to be a little political," says McGee. "I like being abrasive, going against the system a little." And it shows. Abandoned cars, huge stacks of televisions, and installations of kids doing graffiti in public toilets all shine a light on issues of social inequality. For one project, McGee paid unhoused men for their empty liquor bottles and then painted their faces on them. His work always has a social conscience. McGee never forgets his roots as a disenfranchised youth searching for meaning in art.