Hasta La Ideas

“Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities” now showing at The Museum of Arts and Design in New York presents an eclectic range of dioramas, models, and site specific installations alongside photographs and video created from the hand-built works. At first glance the exhibition feels like stepping onto a set you might expect to find in a stop animation studio with beautifully detailed miniature scenes constructed in unapologetic functional boxes—only intended to be viewed through a camera lens inside and up close.

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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).

Our latest video looks at a conceptual artist’s meditation on gray

by
Gregory Stefano

On a recent trip to Mexico City we had the chance to stop by the Zona Maco Art Fair to check out what’s happening south of the border. We explored some great galleries, saw some fantastic work, and one piece that jumped out immediately was by London-based artist Martin Creed called “Untitled” from 2010. We had a chance to discuss it with one of the gallery reps at Hauser and Wirth to get some insight on the scope of the work, as well as the importance of having a presence in the Southern Hemisphere. Check out the video and look out for more from our experience at Zona Maco and Mexico soon.

Snap + Tumble

In celebration of the release of the latest issue of the magazine for the creative and curious, UPPERCASE presents “The Touchy Feely Letterpress Exhibition” and “The Perfect Match Miniature Label Montage”.
 
The current issue features a Letterpress Sampler in which an actual letterpress item like a card, art print or other goodie is inserted randomly into each magazine. You can see (and feel) all the submissions at the exhibition in the gallery, read about all the letterpress printers in the magazine, and view their work in our online gallery.
 
We’re giving away a dozen complete samplers, each containing over 50 amazing items. Stay tuned to the blog through the month of February for details. Come down to Art Central this Thursday to win one in person!
 
Also on display are vintage matchbox labels; have your own free label that comes with a purchase of the magazine or a subscription.
 
A must-see show for lovers of letterpress and those enamored with ephemera! Join us this Thursday, February 3 from 5-9pm for a warm reception.

A Minneapolis production company by day and art gallery by night

Runner Runner Gallery, a new art space within a production studio, will open its second show, featuring the recent work of Minneapolis-based artists Brian Lesteberg and James Holmberg. In the heart of the warehouse district, the interdisciplinary venue is a welcomed gesture in the Minneapolis art scene. Next Thursday’s opening for the show, inviting likeminded students and professionals from the film, advertising, and music industries to come together, embodies the ethos of the project. “It’s sort of a party for art,” describes jMatt Keil, Runner Runner’s vice president of business development. “We’re really excited to show our support and to put on a night of great entertainment.”

The show itself positions Holmberg’s large-scale dreamy photographs against selections from Lesteberg’s most recent project, Raised To Hunt, a document of the journey of hunters through northern Minnesota. Many of the photographs show vast expanses of frozen landscape but after a closer look, an impression of either the killer or the killed— whether drops of blood or a silhouetted parka—emerges. Jarring, intentional violence brings with it a deep sense of natural validation for Lesteberg’s hunters. The extreme photographic detail brings to life even the most banal parts of the killing process, a startling honesty that has something in common with fellow Minnesotan Alec Soth’s 8 x 10 field format.

Like Lesterberg’s photographs, Holmberg’s massive canvases take up the entire field of vision, but that’s where the similarity ends. Holmberg’s paintings confront the viewer with a vast wash of minimal color textured with abstract blobs of pigment. Immediately recalling the softly-focus drive-by shots of “Taxi Driver,” Holmberg’s cinematic style makes the production company/gallery venue all the more appropriate. Runner Runner Gallery’s high ceilings and cement floors, don’t hurt either artists’ works either.

Runner Runner shares the space with affiliate companies Fischer Edit/FX and Modern Music. All three post-production companies thrive together within this collaborative workspace. “In some ways,” explains curator Luke Erickson, “Runner Runner seems like a healthier gallery space, not to mention a model for the business of exhibition, than many I’ve visited.”

“It’s not surprising that it would start here,” says Ian Bearce, executive producer at Runner Runner. “When we’re not in the office, we’re deejaying, playing in touring bands, painting, making films. We’re thrilled to find another way to participate in the local scene.”

The show opens this Thursday, November 18 from 6-9pm and runs through the next few months.