Walton Ford at Paul Kasmin: The Best Show in Chelsea [NSFW]

Yes, I meant it when I said the Walton Ford show at Paul Kasmin Gallery is the “best show in Chelsea”. This comment originally appeared in Wednesday’s link list, and has subsequently prompted a few private emails to the effect of, “You’re not serious?”. Well, yes I am, but for all the reasons those asking the question might think: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a show look this hilariously wrong in a gallery.

If the installation photos don’t already make this clear, viewers are totally kicked in the nuts by Walton’s 9 x 12 foot watercolor and gouache drawings of King Kong’s face. They are the first works a gallery-goer sees and seem oddly placed in such a serious and austere gallery environment. Ford says these paintings are about King Kong’s heartbreak, “the sorrow that the original Kong kept hidden from view,” which, well, whatever. These images aren’t exactly prompting a viewer’s empathy; the ape is merely spectacle, just as he’s always been.

The kind of “wrongness” I’m describing above is unique to established galleries. Were this work made by any one other than Ford, Kasmin would have no interest in it. Displayed at a space like Canada, I expect the show would pass by without a blink of the eye.

Scroll down for images of the full show. In the second part of the gallery, Walton draws a series of monkeys with skinny penises. One rips off the head of a bird while ejaculating, another masturbates while coyly observing a bird. The work evokes the same feeling I get when I see a dog with giant balls get an erection. I want to unsee it.