ExpEriEncE morE “Art in thE StrEEtS 2012: nEw York” on vf.com/ArtinthEStrEEtS or viA #vfStrEEtArt.

Take a renegade artist and his bold language of images and ideas. Add a larger-than-life canvas on a building in the cultural heart of Brooklyn, New York. Combine that with the unique vision and spirit of cadillac and you’ve got a formula for the creation of a piece of artwork that is an iconoclastic expression of the culture and manages to defy all convention.

The second year of Cadillac “Art in the Streets” has arrived, transcending time zones, communities, and all expectations with a commissioned mural by renowned artist Barry mcGee.

presented by

thE ArtiSt: BArrY mcGEEMost commonly, he is known by the moniker “Twist”—yet there are 10 other

aliases that artist Barry McGee regularly employs in his work. “I know them, and

you see the names in the work. But I’d like a little of that to remain unsaid.

I think it’s part of the discovery of understanding who he is,” says Adam Sheffer,

a partner at New York City’s Cheim & Read gallery, where McGee will be

the focus of a solo show in fall 2013. A cult figure who emerged from San

Francisco’s Mission School art scene, McGee first drew interest with his

tagging and street art. He has since evolved into a globally recognized fine

artist who possesses an aesthetic that is innovative, individual, ebullient,

and, as Sheffer shares, exhibits a “well of creativity that has no bottom.”

McGee regularly experiments with a mix of media and techniques to push the

bounds of what his art is—and what it can be. “He’s such a complex character,”

notes Dena Beard, assistant curator at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and

Pacific Film Archive, which is currently hosting a McGee midcareer survey.

“He takes risks to challenge himself to see differently, to embrace something

completely unknown.”

thE cAnvAS: thE mArk morriS DAncE cEntErFor an original mural of this stature that defies convention, there seemed no better

place to install it than one of the country’s most evolving cultural destinations: Brooklyn.

And the larger-than-life “canvas” literally supporting this massive piece of art is

the Mark Morris Dance Center, home of legendary dancer, choreographer, and

artistic director Mark Morris’s dance company. The once-derelict building was renovated

and opened by the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2001 as “a headquarters for the company,

and it has become a haven, a society of dancing, a community enterprise for people

of all ages and abilities,” Morris says. “This building has been tabula rasa. And for it to

now be occupied by this extremely active mural is fabulous. It reflects the ambition and

vitality of the dance center and our neighborhood.” Karen Brooks Hopkins, president

of BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), which is located across the street, also notes the

uniqueness of the area. “This is the quintessential cultural district of the 21st century

because it has great organizations like the Mark Morris Dance Group, BAM, the new

Barclays Arena … institutions small and large, visual and performing, mixed together.

The mural is dynamic, fantastic, energetic. And the idea is that the minute you enter this

district, we want you to feel that you are in a place where art lives.”

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Create an Instagram photo inspired by the daring spirit of Cadillac

“Art in the Streets 2012” with the hashtag #vfstreetart.

For details and to read the rules and regulations, visit vf.com/ArtinthEStrEEtS.

Entrants who submit copyrighted material will not be eligible to win.

#vfstreetart

Nine hundred hours. Seventy-five gallons of paint. Fifty black markers. Twenty angled-

fitch brushes. Six street-art painters. Four booms hovering 50 feet above the ground. One

beautifully pristine wall measuring 100 feet long by 70 feet tall. And the daring spirit of

Cadillac to will it forward. Countless colors, rectangles, hexagons, trapezoids, triangles,

corners, edges, lines, patterns, characters, words, and numbers coalesced to create a

massive, cacophonous mural that, from the first drop of paint, became a cultural focal

point within the community. “An incredible rhapsody of color and energy, like the

city, is completely reflected in this mural,” Sheffer marvels. “Fong. Lydia Fong. THR,

The Harsh Reality. DFW, Down for Whatever. Pimple. Potato head. The Harsh Reality

in Arabic. Barry has put everything in here.” Larry Rinder, director of the UC Berkeley

Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, underscores not only the bold mural’s artistic

magnitude, but also its context on a much grander scale. “Bringing together multiple

and diverse parts into a cohesive whole is a kind of metaphor for this community, a

particular kind of diverse, democratic community that I think is, when we’re at our best,

quintessentially American.”

thE rEvEAl: BArrY mcGEE, Untitled, 2012

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