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barry mcgee

Civic Pride

January 4, 2011 – 12:01 am

We continue to find reasons to be proud of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Joining the Smithsonian protest is just the latest in a series of decisions at MCASD that show us an organization creating dialogue, embracing the community, and evolving into a new era.

Don’t get us wrong, Viva la Revolución was rad, but it wasn’t the exhibition itself that most impressed us. It was when they brought in prolific local artist (not to mention talented community builder!) Mike Maxwell, who gathered 26 street artists for the Live Free Wall featured at the Viva-edition of TNT in August. It was when they found solid ways to support Sezio, ourselves, and Turista Libre during the Tijuego Street Art Bike Tour. And more recently, it was when they called up our Barrio Logan neighbors, The Roots Factory to put on a live screen-printing session at the TNT in October.

But perhaps our proudest moment was the unexpectedly visionary hiring of local artist Wes Bruce to run the MCASD Teen Art Council. Bruce is a natural born teacher, a dedicated community builder, and a tireless creator of inspiring work that has captured the imagination of many people, young and old, over the past few years. He’s a great fit to lead TAC, and we think it’ll have a big impact on the young art leaders growing up around us in San Diego.

You set the bar high in 2010, MCASD. So with a new year ahead of us, what’s next?

Update: Wes brought his teen group to the Bakery for a visit, and we’re really excited to see these young art leaders push the envelope in the coming years.

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Live Free Wall at MCASD

August 10, 2010 – 11:04 am

Ten days ago, Mike Maxwell launched the Live Free Wall outside The Bakery. Since then it’s been a blur of artists painting the wall over and again. The time lapse of the whole project will be unveiled Thursday night August 12 at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, alongside the Viva La Revolucion exhibit, which features the work of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Calma, JR, Ryan McGinness, Os Gemeos…the list goes on and on. Check out the preview above, and we’ll see you at TNT!

Update: See the full time lapse here!

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An Explosion of Street Art Creates Dialogue in San Diego

July 9, 2010 – 9:09 pm

The upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), entitled “Viva La Revolucion,” has generated a tremendous amount of dialogue around the idea of street art, and with that dialogue – controversy. This came to a head with Barry McGee‘s (TWIST) mural across the street from the city hall. Mike Maxwell has been documenting as well as contributing to the explosion of murals showing up on walls across the city, and caught some great footage of McGee’s team attacking an enormous wall while under scrutiny.

Although it’s a common practice to commission walls for artist murals, and we totally understand the value of MCASD grabbing some walls for these artists, we find it a little ironic that an exhibition specifically about the street art movement includes officially sanctioned walls for artists (especially if the MCASD backs down under local criticism).

The beautiful thing about the museum’s exhibition is that while some walls are “official”, some are very much unofficial works done by the artists under their own accord. You may be able to take the street artist off the street, but you can’t take the street out of the street artist.

We’re looking forward to watch this play out over the coming weeks (the exhibition opens to the public on July 18th), and see how MCASD handles ongoing criticism and subsequent education/outreach. One thing is for certain so far: this museum is doing their job by starting dialogue and pushing this city to consider what contemporary art is or should be.

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