The first time I encountered the name Gary Gee was on a notecard titled The King is Black at the 2021 Butter Fine Art Fair. As I typically do at events, I quickly followed Gee on Instagram and went about the evening. It wasn’t until one of Indianapolis’ First Fridays the following fall that I actually saw Gee in real life. As I thought Gee was approaching me to say hello, he walked right past me and up to my then-teenage son, saying, “Man, you can play the hell out of a piano, make sure to keep playing.” That moment – and the fact that somehow my teenage son doesn’t just follow but actually knows Gary Gee, who I’m a fan of – is exactly who Gee is to me.

Gary Gee was born and raised in Indianapolis, developing artistic talents from an early age. Whether it was paper sacks from the grocery

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