David Ratcliff starts producing his works with assembling collages based on the images that he has collected from the internet. Printed on a large sheet of paper, the images of the collage are cut out with a long time to be a stencil. The final step is then to place the stencil on the canvas and use spray-paint to apply the image. The images that have emerged are often hallucinatory. Behind them, there are the artist's interests in things that are American and ugly, and the violence that supports material consumption in the American society, which he faced again after spending a long time abroad. Also, abstraction has begun to become dominant in his recent works. Especially, a series of "Second Painting", works that are created with recycled stencils, generates more abstract images. Chaotic, delirious, disorder…these are the words that seem to describe those images. Ratcliff's paintings, especially the "Second Painting" series, has a characteristic as "the visible result of the physical process" (by the artist). At the same time, they are highly allegorical. Looking across Ratcliff's oeuvre, the viewer cannot help sensing violence, unsettledness, and dread of American society, which serves him the sources of image. Rather, these are omnipresent in this disrupted time we all live in. Concept:
Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyoto is pleased to present an exhibition featuring approximately 10 works by David Ratcliff, including 2 works in 2008 that have not exhibited before. The artist states that this exhibition will be special and personal, as it is the first one that primarily consists of the "Second Painting" series. Artist Biography:
David Ratcliff was born in Los Angels in 1970. He graduated from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 1992. He currently lives and works in Los Angels. Ratcliff has held his major solo exhibitions at Team Gallery (New York, 2005, 2007, and 2008) and Maureen Paley Gallery (London, 2009), and the major group exhibitions at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (New York, 2006 and 2008), Blum & Poe (Los Angels, 2006), and the Trin Triennial (2005-2006). His works have been included in the public collection of the Frank Cohen MOCA (Manchester, UK), Los Angels County Museum of Art, Saatchi Collection (London, UK) and other. This is the second solo exhibition since 2007 at Tomio Koyama Gallery. * The text provided by Tomio Koyama Gallery.