Barry McGee (born 1966 in San Francisco, California) is a painter and graffiti artist. He is also known by monikers  such as Ray Fong, Twist and further variations of Twist, such as Twister, Twisty, Twisto.

McGee graduated from El Camino High School in South San Francisco, California. He later graduated from the SFAI in 1991 with a concentration in painting and printmaking.

McGee rose out of the Mission School art movement and graffiti boom in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early nineties. His work draws heavily from a pessimistic view of the urban experience, which he describes as, “urban ills, overstimulations, frustrations, addictions & trying to maintain a level head under the constant bombardment of advertising”.

McGee’s paintings are very iconic, with central figures dominating abstracted backgrounds of drips, patterns and color fields. He has also painted portraits of street characters on their own empty bottles of liquor, painted flattened spray cans picked up at train yards and painted wrecked vehicles for art shows.

McGee has had numerous shows in many kinds of galleries and was also an artist in residence at inner-city McClymonds High School in Oakland, California in the early 1990s.

He was married to the artist Margaret Kilgallen, who died of cancer in 2001. The couple has a daughter named Asha.

The market value of his work rose considerably after 2001 as a result of his being included in several major exhibitions. As a result, much of his San Francisco street art has been scavenged or stolen.

The Elusive Long-Necker, seen tonight in the Upper Haight at Giant Robot.

As seen on Treasure Island.

San Francisco, you disappointed me today:

“The people of San Francisco expect The City to deliver innovative, cost-effective ideas to address ongoing issues like graffiti,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom. “We’re partnering with artists; we’ve set up straightforward systems to report graffiti through 311; and now we are focusing on tagged trucks.”

Under the City’s plan, owners of graffiti covered trucks registered in San Francisco can apply to have their vehicle painted green by DPW, if they agree to keep graffiti off their vehicle in the future.

“Graffiti is an unnecessary eyesore that hurts our quality of life. The Clean and Green Trucks Pilot Program is a proactive approach that reduces the constant financial burden for our local truck owners; especially during tough economic times,” said Board of Supervisor President David Chiu.

Are you telling me that this is not art? I respectfully disagree.

I’ve been seeing letters such as the above sprout up around The City for the past year. The first one I found was a ‘W’ one day while photowalking in SoMa.

I recognized the letter style as that of REYES (MSK/AWR), a living legend in the world of California graffiti. Internet research revealed a website and Twitter account for tracking the progress of this project.

The artwork of Victor Reyes took root and grew out of Southern California street culture and graffiti art. Now residing in San Francisco, Reyes has parlayed his aesthetic ideals and work ethic into printmaking, fine art paintings, illustration, commercial design, and mural work – all while striving to remain unique and diverse.

Within Victor’s work, the inherently impossible search for perfection is explored, and the obstacles to this perfection are painted in, layered among fluid organic forms woven within solid, seemingly unmoving shapes to create dynamic graphic images that are self-explanatory. Reyes’s work seeks to encapsulate and even to reconcile the seemingly disparate or opposing forces of failure and triumph, the process ultimately being the most important and rewarding aspect of his art. Hard work, dedication to the craft and to the community in which it is created, these are the focus of Victor Reyes as painter and designer.

I look forward to finding the other 25 letters in existence and/or after they are created. If you know of any more locations of these beautiful works of art, drop me a line with the details.

As seen while out shooting with photographers Aaron Durand and Steve Rotman.

One of the most interesting things about shooting graffiti are the characters. Second only to GIRAFA, MUSK is one of my favorite to stumble upon.

This image is best viewed large and on a black background, as its smallest detail is the most important in the composition.

Previously.

There currently exists a small but growing movement on the internet, whereby photographers are photographing abandoned couches. I first learned about this growing subset of image collectors one afternoon while shooting in Oakland with Petalum.

You can see more abandoned sofas in my Flickr set and/or this website based out of Los Angeles.