Charles McGee x Library Street Collective
Orange Barrel Media partnered with Library Street Collective in their efforts to display Charles McGee’s work throughout Detroit. The artist and educator, who called Detroit home since the age of only ten years old, passed away in February of 2021 at the age of ninety-six. His prolific career spanned nearly eight decades.
In 2017, Library Street Collective began working closely with McGee, and since his passing the gallery has worked alongside his daughter, Lyndsay McGee, to assemble a collection of his remaining works. As part of these efforts, with support from Orange Barrel Media, McGee’s 2011 work Play Patterns II will be on display in Detroit’s historic Washington Blvd district September 26th through October 16th, 2022.
April McGee-Flournoy, daughter of Charles McGee explained that, “all 50 elements of Play Patterns II are essential and represent the world and nature as a consortium. The piece represents my father’s work and legacy. It inspires us as a family to strive for unity in a collective effort to honor who Charles McGee was, and his tenacity to overcome challenges with the hope we will live a life that brings inspiration to the world, and our community. My hope is that the billboard sends a message that we all are essential, and must work in concert together, in unity, to fulfill our purpose in this world.”
Featured Artists
Charles McGee
One of Detroit’s most acclaimed artists and educators, Charles McGee is known for his public murals and sculptures around the city, as well as for his large-scale mixed-media works that play with color, line, and patterns. A skilled draftsman, McGee often focused on depictions of everyday Black life, as in his early charcoal portraits. Inspired by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Jean Dubuffet, McGee began incorporating more abstract elements in his art in the 1960s and ’70s, creating paintings, sculptures, and assemblages with scavenged objects. His black-and-white sculpture “United We Stand” (2008), installed outside Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, exemplifies his ability to blend divergent styles and dynamic forms into harmonious compositions. Permanently installed at sites from the Detroit Institute of Arts to the Henry Ford Hospital, McGee’s work is just one part of his legacy in his community, where he also founded numerous galleries and arts organizations to support emerging Black makers.
Initiatives involved in:
Charles McGee x Library Street Collective