Barry McGee has become a name that any art novice or expert has come to know and respect. Any event or art exhibition tied to McGee's name is guaranteed to have art world's ears will perk up. This was absolutely the case for the show that was recently organized right here in San Francisco, titled Contemporary Arts Centre. McGee uses a very specific word to describe the exhibition and opening reception, simply a "happening."

You have likely seen this before, however it’s always a gem to resurrect from the archives.  Painted by Margaret Kilgallen, who occasionally went by the name “Matokie Slaughter” among others.  This same wall still gets painted regularly to this day and has a fair amount of stories beneath the layers.  

A wonderful and simple streak still surviving the rails.  Drawn by Margaret Kilgallen 14 years ago on July 4th.

Margaret Kilgallen is currently the subject of a retrospective, Summer/Selections, at Ratio 3 in San Francisco, and KQED, the San Francisco Bay Area's public television station, created this nice short documentary about Kilgallen, with an interview with book conservator and Kilgallen friend, Daniel Flanagan.

While most of the Juxtapoz staff was back in NYC last night, a few of the team stayed back and headed to the very special Margaret Kilgallen retrospective, Summer/Selections, at Ratio 3 in San Francisco. It was a packed house, everyone honored to see the late artists breathtaking work.

As you may remember, we went back to archives to have Margaret Kilgallen's work on the cover of our April 2011 Art In the Streets Issue. We have also noted that Kilgallen (1967–2001) will have a retrospecitve, Summer / Selections, at San Francisco's Ratio 3 Gallery opening on June 23, 2011.

We made it out to ArtPadSF this weekend, where we saw works from presenting galleries such as White Walls, Ever Gold, Gregory Lind, Guerrero Gallery, Park Life, and Anno Domini, amongst others. And we got to sit poolside for a quick second as well.

One of our personal favorite moments of the entire "Art In the Streets" exhibition is the recreation of one of Margaret Kilgallen's last exhibition brought to life at the MOCA. It makes for a stunning visual, as you come from both the energy of the Os Gemeos installation and the Los Angeles graffiti wall of Revok, Jersey Joe, Saber, and Risk into the folk, bohemian, iconic work of Kilgallen. More after the jump . . .

April 2011 marks a special issue for Juxtapoz Magazine, as we were asked by the MOCA to create a companion issue to the first major instituitional retrospective of street art, Art In the Streets. As we documented street art to a wider-audience of fine art, tattoo, pop-surreal, and illustrative art enthusiasts over our 17 years, we wanted to create an extended dialog and history with graffiti and street art pioneers. More after the jump . . .