Alumnus news: Joe McGee

Joe McGee (BFA in Sculpture 1986, recipient of the Winthrop Allen Award). Since graduation, McGee has maintained an active exhibition schedule, presented his 2D and 3D artwork in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

In 2014, McGee curated and organized "En el Espiritu de Frida," a five-person exhibition to celebrate the life of Frida Kahlo at the Swanson Contemporary Gallery. In 2018, McGee is working on a new project "Merton Among Us: The Living Legacy of Thomas Merton" in which he conceived and organized the selection of seven visual artists and seven writer/poets to honor the life and work of Thomas Merton for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of his passing on Dec. 10, 1968. This project is being hosted in the Fall of 2018 by Spalding University, in cooperation with The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University.

McGee’s work are in many private and public collections, and he has completed several large commissioned sculptures for Woodford Reserve Distillery. McGee was a recipient of an SAF/NEA Fellowship (1988) and a Kentucky Arts Council Professional Assistance Award (1993). For the last thirty years, McGee worked at the Speed Museum as a preparator, the Kentucky Derby Museum as Curator of Exhibits, and the Kentucky Expo Center as the Information Officer/Artist.