KING COBRA (documented as Doreen Lynette Garner) @ JTT Gallery NYC

White Meat – A Critical Review

Ok, I’m a sucker. I had to go out and take a peek at King Cobra’s, (aka. Doreen Lynette Garner’s), new show “White Meat” at JTT Gallery on Broadway in NYC. You may be familiar with her work from her New Museum show in 2022 appropriately titled, “Revolted”.  That show was dark and visceral and involved a lot of meat imagery. I liked it, and although on the surface the works are visually fun and would have fit in great with Charles Saatchi’s sensations collection at the Brooklyn Museum in 1998, these new works are far more humorous, including silicone butthole mirrors, rope hair, meat grinders and an extremely creative twist on Damien Hirst’s “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” from 1991, commonly known as the shark in formaldehyde. It’s the star of the show and glows across the gallery out the door and onto the busy street. It’s obvious eye candy and has garnered massive gains and attention on social media sites like Instagram. But Doreen’s work is more than just fodder for a doom scroller’s insatiable appetite. Her work is highly and very specifically political and under the shiny surface hopes to subvert black objectification by exposing the many ways white femininity has presented itself as vulnerable while secretly operating as a threat. Is the message successful? That’s for you to decide for yourself. Is the work worth the time to swing by and check out? A definitive yes. It put a smile on my face even if I’m not sure it was supposed to. “White Meat” is on view at JTT Gallery through May 13th.  For more info on King Cobra, visit www.doreengarner.com