Barry McGee: Smash the State

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Article via contrasts.net.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, who has thumbed his nose at the establishment before, let a graffiti artist spray paint his City Hall office walls with the bright orange message: "SMASH THE STATE."

There is irony. There is art appreciation. There are raised eyebrows.

Gonzalez, who has hosted monthly art installations in his office by unknown and known artists for the last four years, offered up this graffiti for one of his last exhibits before he exits City Hall on Jan. 8. Gonzalez did not seek re-election.

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The artist's message in traffic-cone orange that appears behind Gonzalez's desk was painted by Barry McGee, an internationally known San Francisco artist whose work first appeared anonymously in the 1980s on outdoor walls and tunnels.

McGee, whose City Hall wall work was unveiled last Friday, included some of his trademark cartoonish faces of sad sack characters, including a man with bulging eyes. A second element includes painted blocks of wood, arranged in a way that is reminiscent of parquet.

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I blogged about Chris Cobb's installation Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World previously and just got an update from him that it will remain on view at the Adobe Bookshop until January 15. One of the many admirers of... Read More

Matt Gonzales is a puerile idiot. It's sad how degenerate and silly politics have become in SF (see Chris Daly)

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Published on December 10, 2004 9:24 PM.

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