david mcgee

Mad Cap Press’ latest project with the amazing David McGee. More work coming soon… 👀 “Grits” Eleven color lithograph 20” x 16” 2026 Printed by master printer Patrick Masterson and assisted by Jai España for the 25th Glasstire anniversary. Video made by Jordan Bolduc. #Lithography #printmaking #madcappress

🍎👞Symbolism takes center stage throughout “David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale.” Though text does not appear in this early series, language is embedded in the paintings through metaphor and wordplay, infusing them with layered significance. Visitors are introduced to this from the very beginning.   Upon entry, guests are greeted by “The Wastelands,” McGee’s first mature body of work, which establishes themes that would reverberate throughout his career and sets the tone for a richly layered experience. 👀 📝Created between 1992 and 1995, the series draws from Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” transforming themes of moral crisis and spiritual dislocation into bold color, symbolic forms, and expressive gestures.   “I wanted those paintings to have a sense of atmospheric speed. There was no top, there was no bottom, just this feeling of not having anything to hold onto. And that’s how I felt when I was young.” - David McGee   🗓️“David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale” on view through August 23, 2026.   Credits: - “Love Is Blindness” from “The Wastelands” series, 1994, Oil, enamel, and newsprint on canvas, 96 x 96 in. Dallas Museum of Art, Gift of the Professional Members League, 1995.43 - “Sperm Rush” from “The Wastelands” series, 1994, Oil on canvas, 69 13/16 x 66 ¼ in. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Mr. and Mrs. I. H. Kempner III and Jeanne and Michael Klein, 94.107. - “Untitled” from “The Wastelands” series, 1994, Oil on canvas, 70 x 67 in. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Gift of Michael A. Caddell and Cynthia Chapman, 2005.1857

A griot is a West African storyteller who keeps tribal histories and cultural traditions alive by sharing oral histories through stories or songs. A nightingale is a small, brown bird with a melodious song that’s known as a symbol of poetic inspiration — a migratory muse of sorts.⁠ ⁠ When Houston-based artist @davidmcgee773 set out to name his latest exhibition, a collection of more than 100 paintings and drawings spanning his career, he landed on The Griot & the Nightingale to represent the ways he aims to tell stories with flair.⁠ ⁠ “Sometimes you have to use poetry to enliven the story,” he said. “It’s the same way people use music to tell a story. So, when you’re talking to a tribe about their past and their present you have to enliven those tales.”⁠ ⁠ McGee’s tales are told on canvas. They range from brilliantly colored pieces to starkly contrasting shapes; from politically charged imagery to personal love letters to his mother. The artist debuted this survey of his life’s work at @thebechtler Museum of Modern Art on March 14. The exhibit runs until August 23.⁠ ⁠ 🔗 Click the link in our bio to go behind the scenes of how this creation came together, from McGee’s close work with Bechtler curator @katia.zavistovski to the creation of musical playlists by @blacknotesproject and soundscapes from composer Chris Becker to accompany the artist’s visuals. ⁠ ⁠ ✍️: @kiaodot ⁠ 📸: Ghost Crab Productions

A little night reading? #bechtlermuseum

Showtime is finally here! To Katia and Todd and all the wonderful crew at the beautiful Bechtler Museum of Art I give you my sincere thanks and love. #bechtlermuseum

Almost there!! Install At The Bechtler Museum of Art #bechtlermuseum

Discover what’s coming. March 14. Three decades of David McGee. Over 100 works. From early explorations to his latest series. All together. For the first time in one major museum survey. “David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale” March 14 - August 23, 2026 #newexhibition #bechtlermuseum #charlotteevents #comingsoon #davidmcgee McGee Featured artwork: David McGee, “Corporate Girl / Side B,” 1997, Oil on canvas, 99 x 96 inches. Collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art; Partial gift of John Axelrod (PA 1964) and museum purchase, 2000.17. Photo courtesy of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA / Art Resource, NY. .

👀🚨See what’s coming next at the Bechtler 🚨👀   ✨ “David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale” 🗓️ Opening March 14   This major survey brings together more than 100 paintings and works on paper spanning over 30 years of McGee’s career—including rarely exhibited early works, large-scale figurative and abstract paintings, and selections from his most recent series.   As the artist’s first major museum survey, the exhibition reveals the formal and thematic threads that define McGee’s powerful, poetic, and socially engaged practice.   On view March 14 - August 23, 2026 at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. #newexhibition #newexhibitioniscoming #bechtlermuseum #comingsoon #charlotteevents Image Credits: David McGee, “The End of Summer” from “Blue Hour” series, 1999, Oil on canvas, 70 x 60 inches. Collection of Anita & Gerald Smith Family. Photo: Brad Trone.   David McGee, “Blackbird” from “Avenging Angels” series, 2023, Watercolor on paper, 60 x 40 inches. Collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Nina and Michael Zilkha, 2024.3. Photo by Allyson Huntsman.   David McGee, “Corporate Girl / Side B,” 1997, Oil on canvas, 99 x 96 inches. Collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art; Partial gift of John Axelrod (PA 1964) and museum purchase, 2000.17. Photo courtesy of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA / Art Resource, NY.   David McGee, “Drum Call” from “Shadow Men” series, 2025, Watercolor on paper, 2025, 60 x 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston, TX. Photo by Thomas R. DuBrock.   David McGee, “Howl” from “La bête” series, 1998, Oil on canvas, 96 x 96 inches. Collection of Charles Jenness. Photo by Thomas R. DuBrock.   David McGee, “Dalí” from “Ready Made Africans” series, 2015, Watercolor on paper, 30 x 22 inches. Collection of Poppi Massey. Photo by Jake Eshelman.   David McGee, “Devil’s Wind” from “Complications of Water” series, 2017, Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston, TX. Photo by Allyson Huntsman.

New music! * Link in Bio * The work of Houston-based artist @davidmcgee773 inspired this brand-new composition. It was commissioned by @thebechtler for McGee’s first major museum survey, The Griot and the Nightingale, on view from March 14 to August 23, 2026. There are two parts to this soundscape. The first is a dreamlike assemblage of urban ambience, including traffic, unidentifiable machinery, sirens, and children playing. It alludes to McGee’s stark, black-and-white, oil-on-burlap Urban Dreads paintings. Part two resonates with the spirit of McGee’s Oracles, a series of collages paying homage to tap dancer and activist Howard “Stretch” Johnson. Emerging out of the gentle wash of an inverted C major chord are Tibetan bells, local and exotic birds (who populate McGee’s recent watercolor portraits), vinyl record pops and scratches, and fragments of conversation with McGee. Throughout this soundscape, distortion, the superimposition of rhythms, and the rough edges of my edits (all done digitally) are an aural response to the physical textures of McGee’s paintings and collages. Much like a painter who tests out ideas with studies (something David doesn’t do!), over the course of several months, I shared several “sketches” with David before creating this final work. And now, each time I listen to it, I hear something new, which is not something one, as a composer, can plan for. You have a concept, your technique, and technology, but the actual process of creation is alchemic, and the result transcendental.

"irony of Negro policman: After JMB Watercolor on paper 60x40 2025 #inmangallery

"The Libertine" Watercolor on paper 2025 60x40 From the series "The Shadow Men #inmangallery

The Night King" Watercolor on paper 60x40 2025 From the series "The Shadow Men" #inmangallery