Barry McGee: Reproduction

For decades, Barry McGee has collected and made photographs to use as inspiration and source material for his paintings, installations, and zines.

Exploring this vast archive for the first time, Reproduction focuses on the significant role of photographs within McGee’s artistic practice, while texts by Sandy Kim, Ari Marcopoulos, and Sandra S. Phillips offer new insights into McGee’s multifaceted forms of creative expression. Captured at all hours and around the world with whatever camera is at hand, McGee’s images are immediate, casual, intimate, and anarchic all at once. His work boldly employs geometric shapes, clusters of framed drawings and paintings, distinctive characters, and found objects such as empty bottles, surfboards, and wrecked vehicles. Whether incorporated into his iconic multi-element compositions, or printed in the innumerable fanzines and artist’s books that often accompany his exhibitions, photographs pervade McGee’s practice.

Barry McGee: Reproduction provides unique insight into the process of a major American artist, and is a testament to the immense amount of visual information McGee has absorbed to build one of the most eclectic and innovative artistic legacies of our time.