Bird-Killing, Masturbating Monkeys at the Paul Kasmin Gallery

Here’s some chilling new watercolor work from Walton Ford, that is, if you spot the ethical parallel between yourself and these monkeys jerking it while choking the throat of a helpless bird in the clasp of its opposable thumb. Delicate, detailed, intricate and giant, the series is part close ups of cinema’s 1933 King Kong crying mid “the grief of the unlovable” and part illustrations of a diary entry by the ornithologist John James Audubon (1785-1851). Read more »

Kenny Scharf Exhibiting Work That Isn’t Likely to Be Vandalized

Artist Kenny Scharf opens two shows in two of Paul Kasmin Gallery’s spaces today. The wildly different exhibits are open to the public and even well behaved graffiti writers are invited. Read more »

David LaChapelle’s newly opened solo exhibit at Paul Kasmin Gallery features the divine adventures of Michael Jackson, conveniently shot just a year before the death of the “modern martyr.” Also: a critique of the Catholic Church’s corruption with vague bondage and much bling and Rape of Africa, a spin of glamorized politics over Botticelli’s Venus & Mars (the possible “acid trippers”). Preview the work below. Read more »

Mark Ryden Has More Meat for You

Exploring beauty, repulsion and kitsch, Mark Ryden’s first NYC solo exhibit at Paul Kasmin Gallery since 2003 has more of his signature classical painting and macabre fetishism for Abe Lincoln, meat, Jesus and Victorian little ladies miscarrying in pretty gardens. “The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show” (that’s 1890′s) opens today. Meanwhile, see him paint one below. Read more »

Walton Ford Paints Beasts of Nature

Wolves gnawing on dead soldiers, a gorilla with a gun in its mouth and an aroused monkey fondling its noose: these are not images that typify the naturalist style which Walton Ford employs. Characterizing his work as a “cultural history of the way animals live in the human imagination,” the Massachusetts-based artist paints large-format watercolors of frequently violent wildlife encounters, noting that “before Fay Wray comes to Skull Island, King Kong isn’t doing anything. There’s no story until she shows up.” Ford’s historically-styled animal illustrations are currently on view at Chelsea’s Paul Kasmin Gallery.

“New Work,” November 12 – December 23, Paul Kasmin Gallery, 293 Tenth Ave