David McGee:
El Soñador Elegante

Houston-based artist David McGee inaugurated DiverseWorks’ 25th season by creating a massive installation featuring sculpture, painting, photography, and video depicting the essence of 25 years of DiverseWorks’ history. McGee mined the DiverseWorks archives and blended its artistic history with a potent blend of symbols and musings related to Alonso Quixano, the protagonist of Miguel de Cervante’s classic novel, Don Quixote.  In McGee’s view,  DiverseWorks, with its long-history of supporting and nurturing artists, is an organization existing in a “waking dream” state similar to Quixano.  For McGee, DiverseWorks has succeeded in part due to its commitment to realizing “the impossible dream.”

About David McGee

Born in Lockhart, Louisiana, David McGee received a BA from Prairie View A&M University in 1985. His work has been the focus of solo exhibitions at DiverseWorks,  (2004), Texas Gallery, Houston (2005, 1995, 1994), Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence (2001), Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1998), Galveston Arts Center (1996), and Project Row Houses, Houston (1994). McGee’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions and is held in the collections of The Menil Collection, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence; Addison Gallery of American Art at Philips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; Dallas Museum of Art; and Harvard University Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2005 David McGee collaborated  with the Menil Collection, curating Deep Wells and Reflecting Pools, a selection of works from the museum’s archives and collection. David McGee was the TALA “Artist of the Year” in 2005 and was visiting lecturer at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University in 2004.