Kalup Linzy
1977–

Encompassing performance, video, music, writing, and directing, Kalup Linzy’s art probes the socioeconomic structures of high and low culture with equal parts earnestness, resourcefulness, and wit. After studying at the University of South Florida and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, in 2002 Linzy began producing Conversations Wit de Churen, an episodic video series that continued for over a decade. The work focuses on the emotional lives of a host of female characters, all played by the artist in drag. These narratives play with the trope of daytime television soap opera— with its melodrama, plot twists, and cliffhanger endings—and make reference to the long-running soap operas All My Children and As the World Turns. The story is set in the American South, and each character speaks with a distinct dialect in a voice-over that is slowed down or sped up to create masculine and feminine tones. The multiple layers of Linzy’s performance— histrionic acting, affected speech, blonde wigs, and tight dresses—result in direct commentaries on gender, race, sexuality, and class.