David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale

Spanning three decades, David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale brings together over 100 paintings and drawings that trace the artist’s career from the 1990s to the present—from rarely exhibited early work to selections from his most recent series. As the artist’s first major museum survey, the exhibition features works not previously seen together, illuminating the formal strategies and recurring motifs that define his expansive oeuvre.

McGee’s multifaceted practice examines the tangled narratives of art history, the fluid nature of language, and the politics of race and class. Like the griots of West Africa—storytellers who preserve and transmit communal memory through word and song—McGee approaches image and text as living archives. Drawing on a wide range of visual, literary, musical, and pop cultural references, his emotionally resonant work frequently brings these elements into dialogue to question dominant narratives and explore systems of representation. Invoking the nightingale of poetic tradition—a symbol of lyric expression and renewal—his practice is simultaneously rooted in historical consciousness and creates possibilities for new stories taking flight.

Support for David McGee: The Griot and the Nightingale comes from the generous donors of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art Director's Circle.