Team Gallery in New York presents Ryan McGinley's Animals which consists of the artist's color studio portraits of live animals with nude models. The exhibition is his first made up exclusively of selections from this growing, and ambitious, body of work. The artist visited various sanctuaries, zoos, and rescue establishments across the United States, erecting a mobile studio wherever possible and working with a number of pre-eminent animal trainers. The animals are not mere props in photographs of people; on the contrary, McGinley considers them the subjects of these images. There exists both tension and tenderness between the models and wild animals, as they claw, clutch, nibble, and hug one another. These photographs are studies in animal bodies, their strangeness and seductivity. Animals will be on view concurrently with McGinley's Grid show both Team Gallery locations in NYC from May 2 to June 2, 2012.