Barry McGee at Cheim & Read

James Kalm has been tipped off to the work of Barry McGee since the late 1990s through an interview with local Graffiti writer ZEPHYR (Andrew Witten). But it was McGee's last show at Jeffrey Deitch Projects that made a serious impression. Having grown up in San Francisco, and employed the local street art tactics of the "Mission School", McGee cobles together massive assemblage like tableaus that incorporate painting, drawings, photography, and found objects to create funked up environments, contrasting geometric formalism with hobo like road signs. His brilliant color is played off the decrepitude of found sun-faded billboard style text.