Charles McGee
He spent decades making art in Detroit and helping build the institutions that supported it.
This artist's work is shown through the museum and artist links on this page while it remains under copyright or awaits a permission-cleared image.
McGee was born in Clemson, South Carolina, and moved to Detroit at 10. After Marine Corps service he studied on the GI Bill at the Society of Arts and Crafts, now the College for Creative Studies. A year in Barcelona in 1968 moved his work from realism to abstraction.
He established Gallery 7, taught at Eastern Michigan University from 1969 to 1987, and co-founded the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit in 1978. In 2008 he became the first Kresge Eminent Artist.
"Detroit really has been a heaven for me," he said. His work remains visible around the city, from the People Mover's Broadway Station to Unity, painted on the 28 Grand building in 2018.