Margaret Kilgallen

Inspired by vernacular folk art and local shop signs around San Francisco, Margaret Kilgallen combined elements of graffiti and sign painting to create graphic hand-painted murals. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in printmaking from Colorado College in 1989, Kilgallen moved to the Bay Area, where she became involved in the art scene of San Francisco’s Mission District. She and her husband, fellow artist Barry McGee, painted graffiti together, tagging freight trains with their monikers Matokie Slaughter and Twist. As a bookbinder and conservator for the San Francisco Public Library, Kilgallen amassed a vast knowledge of typography, which she applied her own practice that featured meticulously hand-crafted lettering. Using a distinct palette of red, yellow, and brown paint—often in discontinued or deeply discounted colors—she produced room-sized murals featuring women surfing or biking interspersed with text in circus-like fonts. At the time of her death from breast cancer at age 33, Kilgallen had recently received her MFA from Stanford.