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Kalup
Linzy, still from Art Jobs and Lullabies
(Covered and Remixed), Video Suite 2, 2015, Video, 37 minutes, Edition of 5
+ 1 AP. Image via garisandhahn.com.
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Art.Jobs.Lullabies
April 2 – May 2, 2015
263 Bowery
New York,
NY
From Garis
& Hahn press release:
Garis
& Hahn is pleased to present Art.Jobs.Lullabies,
a presentation of new and recent music, video and mixed media works by Kalup
Linzy. This event marks the gallery’s first solo exhibition with the artist.
New York
based performance artist Kalup Linzy writes, directs, produces, and stars in
several complexly interwoven soap opera serials that make up the artist’s best
known video series’, including As da Art
World Might Turn and Melody Set Me
Free. A dedicated performer with a background in choir and theater, Linzy
has meticulously developed a cast of 22 characters he portrays since beginning
the series in 2002. Riffing on a screenwriter’s tactic to ‘test’ roles in different
scenarios, Linzy runs many of his characters through real world scenes,
appearing as them for important performances, including his 2010 cameo on the
veteran soap opera, General Hospital.
His tragic, talented and naive alter egos are often confronted with the harsh reality
of the channels that control their art world success. Paradoxically, Linzy also
plays the role of opportunistic and powerful vixens, who use and take what they
want to get to the top. In drawing on semiautobiographical material filtered
through the gaudy, melodramatic treatment
of a daytime soap, Linzy is able to simultaneously live out his fantasies and aesthetic
pursuits, while also satirizing the art world establishment and realities he
faces in his own practice and personal life.
For
Linzy’s new and most recent works featured in Art.Jobs.Lullabies, new music videos and remixes add to the
mythology of several of his characters, many of whom have achieved their own
fame and fandom, such as performance artist, “Pisces” and video artist/singer,
“Kaye.” The photo collage and gouache on paper pieces directly represent these
parts as well. Jimmy and Lisa (A Selfie)
(2015), a collage featuring the eponymous roles (and Kaye’s fictional parents),
is made by Linzy playing the artist, “Katonya” of As da Art World Might Turn–and signed by both Linzy and Katonya.
Photographs also reaffirm several character identities, such as
“Taiwan,” a torch singer presumed dead, and Kalup Linzy, himself, for Sweet Liberty (2015), produced in
collaboration with Dan Colen. The image, of nude Linzy and Colen on the verge
of kissing, is both provocative (it was banned from a planned exhibition on
London street billboards) as it is vacant, an artist intended vacuum for
viewer’s projections. Linzy is further revealed in the videos in his Art Job Lullabies, Video Suite 1 & 2
(2015) series, and débuting for the exhibition. Comprised of original, covered,
and remixed songs performed by Linzy,
including Curtis Mayfield's We People Who
Are Darker Than Blue (2015), as well as DJ collaborations based on sampling
of classic R&B tunes, both video suites offer the most current look at the
evolution of Linzy’s practice.
This
duality of personas and the ‘real’ Kalup Linzy, presented together in Art.Jobs.Lullabies, hints at the
overarching theme for Linzy’s overall body of work–that is, how much role
playing is inherent in self-actualization. As Linzy has stated, “I’m still
learning where I fit in with all these personas...Sometimes these roles are
embarrassing, but...the more embarrassed I feel, the better it is for the
audience, a relative once said to me. That creates a space of real freedom.”
About the Artist
Kalup
Linzy was born 1977 in Florida. He received his MFA from University of South
Florida in 2003, also attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
His work has been featured in exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New
York, NY; Prospect1, New Orleans, LA; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL; and
in solo exhibitions at LAXART, Los Angeles, CA and MoMA P.S. 1 Contemporary Art
Center, Long Island, NY; among others. Works by Kalup Linzy are held in the
collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Whitney Museum of American Art,
MoMA, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Linzy has lectured at universities
and colleges across the country, including Harvard University and New York University.
He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
About Garis & Hahn
Garis
& Hahn is a gallerycumKunsthalle that mounts exhibitions focused on
conceptual narratives and relevant conversations in contemporary art. By
displaying an array of carefully curated artists, the gallery endeavors to
provide accessibility, education, awareness, and a market to the art while
engaging both the arts community and a broader general audience.
