Hasta La Ideas

Team opens their second gallery with a show of collages

Five years ago José Freire reached out to Jeffery Deitch to inquire about the sustainability of gallery space in SoHo. Deitch has since moved on but Team Gallery has held strong in the downtown neighborhood and is now opening their second space in the area. Notorious for presenting work by young, emerging artists and work residing on the fringe of the art world, Team is inaugurating the new space with a show by L.A.-ased artist David Ratcliff.

Ratcliff’s exhibit, “Portraits and Ghosts,” features new work by the artist that drifts away from the chaotic scenes for which he is known. The pieces are composed in a complex and obsessive manner with Ratcliff creating massive stencils from taped together 8.5″ x 11″ pieces of printed collage. The works combine imagery and words harvested from children’s books, political cartoons and drawings—coalescing into fragile—yet powerful—commentary on the classic American iconography of violence. The pliable nature of the media and the deliberately confused text lend the large prints a raw nature, drawing a nice contrast to the meticulous methodology that began their creation.

Be sure to check out the exhibition, running throug 11 June, 2011, and to support Team Gallery‘s new space (open Tuesday-Saturday from 10am to 6pm).