Kalup Linzy
“Paula Sungstrong (1923-2012) is one of the latest additions to my fictitious Queen Rose family tree,” multimedia artist and performer Kalup Linzy writes in an introduction to his 2020 album, the Paula Sungstrong Legend Recordings. “Her career as an entertainer began in 1937 at the tender age of 14 and spanned five and a half decades before her retirement in 2004. This release marks the first from her estate, which is managed by her granddaughter, curator, and art consultant, Breena Cowill.”
The latest boundary pushing work by an artist whose highly theatrical artworks challenge ideas of gender while embracing a wide range of pop cultural forms—among them soap operas, drag performances, censored movies and various period entertainments—Linzy’s latest foray into music invokes the torch songs of Billie Holliday, Sarah Vaughn, and Ella Fitzgerald, while mobilizing a new persona that, once again, materializes his own highly democratic creative dictum: “entertainment is art’s bastard child.” Written, directed and edited by Linzy and performed with local musicians and producers, his most recent music videos resonate like LGBTQ-inspired anthems for a new civil rights era.
— CVF, USFCAM
Kalup Linzy, J'ai Des Sentiments from Paula Sungstrong Legend Recordings, 2020. Video. Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo Gallery.
Kalup Linzy, I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (Polaroid Full length Version), from Paula Sungstrong Legend Recordings, 2020. Video. Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo Gallery.
“With our studios being closed at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, the highlight of my week was going to the grocery store and seeing my chiropractor. I would talk to my therapist at least three times a month via FaceTime, which my insurance covered free of charge. I texted friends a lot and face timed with a few of them. I managed to create one video for a project called COVID19 Diaries in Munich, Germany. Other than that, I spent my nights projecting Netflix, CNN, TCM, Discovery, and the Travel channel. Recent health issues forced me to change my diet. As for exercise, I jogged and walked around my block a few times a week.”
— Kalup Linzy
Kalup Linzy, I Put a Spell on You from Paula Sungstrong Legend Recordings, 2019. Video. Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo Gallery.
Artist Kalup Linzy, 2020. Photo by Melissa Lukenbaugh, Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
About Kalup Linzy
(Stuckey, Florida, 1977)
He lives and works in Tampa, Florida and Brooklyn, New York.
Kalup Linzy thematically explores sexuality, gender stereotypes, cultural identities, and his childhood upbringing through soap opera-based video and performance works. His videos are characteristically hyperbolic and gritty, often low-tech in quality, with plots calling on socialization, and community. Linzy pushes gender boundaries by adorning himself and his subjects in drag, manipulating the voice, and inserting a familiar cultural vernacular into his dialogues. Each of his characters includes an extensively mapped background, layered and linked together with the others to create a family tree. Linzy’s recent solo exhibitions include Sundance Film Festival (Park City, UT); Berkeley Art Museum (Berkeley, CA); Studio Museum in Harlem; and LAX ART (Los Angeles, CA). Recent group shows include The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY) and The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY). Linzy has been honored with awards and grants including The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, The Creative Capital Foundation grant, The Art Matters grant, The Jerome Foundation grant, The Harpo Foundation grant, and The Headlands Alumni Award residency. His work is included in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY); and The Rubell Family Collection (Miami, FL). Recent press includes The New York Times, Artnet News, Art Newspaper, and The Guardian. He is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow.
Artist website: kaluplinzystudio.com
Artist Instagram: @kaluplinzy
Artist Twitter: @KalupLinzy
Studio Facebook: facebook.com
Gallery website: davidcastillogallery.com