Barry McGee is an American artist and leading figure of the bi-coastal artistic subculture of skateboarders, street artists, and surfers. McGee’s drawings, paintings, and mixed-media installations are informed by contemporary urban life, often depicting empty liquor bottles, spray paint cans, tagged signs, wrenches, and scrap metal. He is also a graffiti artist, and views the medium as a more direct method of communication for reaching an audience outside the space of a gallery or museum. McGee was born in 1966 in San Francisco, CA and graduated with a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991. His popularity and fame rose considerably after his inclusion in the 2001 Venice Biennale, and was subsequently featured in major exhibitions at institutions such as the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the UCLA Hammer in Los Angeles.