Extended through May 7, 2022
Works Exhibited
About
The smallest fragment of source material related to natural history can evoke sweeping cinematic images.
—Walton Ford
Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Walton Ford. Opening on March 11, 2022, this is his first exhibition with the gallery in New York.
Absorbing the techniques prevalent in scientific field studies, explorers’ notebooks, and lushly illustrated natural history books, Ford’s watercolors recast, reverse, and rearrange the conventions of wildlife art. His practice is research-driven, responding to such diverse inspirations as Hollywood horror movies, Indian fables, medieval bestiaries, colonial hunting narratives, and obscure zookeepers’ manuals. Ford’s visions are consistently of wild rather than domestic animals. His monumental paintings seek to show us what it means for such animals to live not so much in nature as in the human imagination.
Cabeza de Vaca (2021) takes its name from the sixteenth-century Spanish explorer. Shipwrecked on the Gulf Coast in 1528, he journeyed lost across the American Southwest before finally reaching Mexico City eight years later. The painting is an exploration of human fear and paranoia when faced with the unknown, the mountainous rattlesnake a dream symbol suggesting the misapprehension and trauma of first contact.
#WaltonFord
Walton Ford: Assuming an Animal Form
Walton Ford narrates the histories and myths behind two of his newest paintings.
Gagosian Quarterly Talks
Walton Ford and Irving Blum
Walton Ford sat down with legendary art dealer Irving Blum at Gagosian Beverly Hills to discuss his latest exhibition, Calafia.
King of the Jungle
Walton Ford’s most recent paintings focus on the history of California through fantastical interpretations of humanity and its encounters with animal life.
News
In Conversation
New Social Environment
Cabeza de Vaca: Walton Ford
Tuesday, April 5, 2022, 1pm EDT
As part of the Brooklyn Rail’s online series New Social Environment, Walton Ford joins the journal’s editor-at-large Jason Rosenfeld for a conversation about the artist’s current eponymous exhibition at Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street, New York, as well as his practice in general. In these daily lunchtime Zoom conversations, invited artists, writers, filmmakers, and poets discuss creative life in the context of our new social reality with Brooklyn Rail staff. The talk will conclude with a poetry reading by Lee Ann Norman. To join the online event, register at brooklynrail.org.
Installation view, Walton Ford, Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street, New York, March 11–April 23, 2022. Artwork © Walton Ford. Photo: Rob McKeever
