Walt Cassidy (artist)

Last updated
Walt Cassidy
Walt Cassidy.jpg
Cassidy in 2023
Born (1972-11-21) November 21, 1972 (age 51)
Los Alamitos, CA
NationalityAmerican (Austrian-Irish)
Education Kent State University, Kent, OH
School of Visual Arts, New York City
Known for Contemporary Art, Design

Walt Cassidy (born November 21, 1972) is a New York City-based artist, author and curator notable for his contemporary art, books and participation in the New York City Club Kids culture. His exploratory art, writing and design emphasizes narrative abstraction and aestheticism while addressing autobiographical themes of subculture, gender, drugs, trauma and transformation. [1]

Contents

Walt Cassidy Studio (Design)

In 2014, Walt Cassidy Studio was established as a unisex brand encompassing jewelry, silkscreen printing and hand painted murals. [2]

The jewelry gained attention through social media platforms, such as Instagram, [3] and was discovered by Mark Holgate and profiled in Vogue in 2015. [4]

Walt Cassidy Studio created jewelry for Derek Lam's Spring Summer 2016 collection, [5] and has collaborated with the Long Life China Company and the Brazilian brand Melissa. [6] The design works have been featured at The Limited Edition (Miami), The Feathered (Mexico City) and Maison 10 (New York).

In 2016, Walt Cassidy Studio began a series of interior based murals for private collections, largely focused on atmospheric color storms and muscular flower motifs. [7] The murals extended to public spaces such as Leslie-Lohman Museum, The Pod Hotel and HOWM Restaurant at Selina Hotel in New York City. [8]

Artworks

Cassidy's artwork evolved from an interest in still life photography, sculpture, and illustration. The Kitchen Spells (2005) and The Inferior Orbs (2006) were first exhibited in The Believers at MASS MOCA [1] and operate symbolically on multiple levels, indicating religious spiritualism and secular cultural resonance, while also working as deep autobiographical portraits. [9]

The Protective Motif, Cassidy's first solo show in New York, debuted in 2010 at Invisible-Exports gallery in Manhattan's Lower East Side. The show included The Paper Photographs (2008), ink drawings, and the wall based sculptures, Nail Bomb (2009) and Through (2010). Cassidy works in cut brass, weaving, stripping, and hooking abstract patterns and textures on a wood frames. These works are minimalist in material but maximalist in emotion, and operate where autobiography meets methodology. [9]

The Nervous Peal (2011) drawings were exhibited in The Displaced Person at Invisible-Exports, alongside works by Sue Williams and Ron Athey. In this series of ink drawings of athletic sculptures, Cassidy "examines structures that impose both conformity and alterity on the body. Carbon photography prints of idyllic male youths, framed within hand-drawn structures, reflect an eroticization of and dislocation from the male form. Tellingly, Cassidy's choice of settings includes New York's Jacob Riis beach, honoring a man who documented the plight of the industrial era's downtrodden". [10]

"Waltpaper"

Throughout the 1990s, Walt Cassidy (then called Waltpaper, a reference to his early illustration work [11] ) was at the center of the New York City Club Kids, an artistic and fashion-conscious youth culture. The group was a definitive force in New York City's underground club culture at the time and made long-lasting contributions to mainstream art and fashion. According to Cassidy, "The nightclub for me was like a laboratory, a place where you were encouraged and rewarded for experimentation." [12] He lived at the Chelsea Hotel during this time period. [13]

Cassidy founded the band BOOB (1995–98), a conceptual hardcore rock band, composed of various club kids, that began amidst the infamous Peter Gatien-owned nightclubs—The Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium, and Club USA—as well as the downtown venues CBGB and Don Hills. The band was known for their elaborate and over-the-top image, which sought to challenge gender social norms during the growing conservatism of Rudy Giuliani's "Quality of Life" campaign in New York City. [14]

In October 2019, Cassidy’s first book, NEW YORK: CLUB KIDS by Waltpaper, is published by Damiani. A high-impact visual diary of New York City in the 1990s, NEW YORK: CLUB KIDS is a comprehensive visual document of the decade's colorful nightlife and street culture. The book grants special access to an underground world, providing exclusive insight into the lifestyle of this celebrated and notorious clique. In New York Club Kids, Cassidy details the trajectory of the movement, illustrating his story with over 500 images by 18 photographers and artists who documented the scene. The images capture the driving members of the scene, as well as the thousands of other club-goers, along with the fashion, iconic clubland graphics, extravagant interiors of the mega-clubs they frequented, and the bustling city-scape of New York City in the 1990s. “There was a vast scene of people who were doing so many different things creatively,” says Cassidy. “The book is really a love story to New York, told from the vantage point of the Club Kids.” [15] )

Exhibitions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Haring</span> American artist and social activist (1958–1990)

Keith Allen Haring was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. In addition to solo gallery exhibitions, he participated in renowned national and international group shows such as documenta in Kassel, the Whitney Biennial in New York, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective of his art in 1997.

The Club Kids were a group of young New York City dance club personalities. The group was notable for its members' flamboyant behavior and outrageous costumes.

Scott Treleaven is a Canadian artist whose work employs a variety of media including painting, collage, film, video, drawing, photography and installation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Blair</span> American artist, animator, and designer

Mary Blair was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South and Cinderella. Blair also created character designs for enduring attractions such as Disneyland's It's a Small World, the fiesta scene in El Rio del Tiempo in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase, and an enormous mosaic inside Disney's Contemporary Resort. Several of her illustrated children's books from the 1950s remain in print, such as I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss. Blair was inducted into the group of Disney Legends in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John White Alexander</span> American painter

John White Alexander was an American portrait, figure, and decorative painter and illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art</span> Visual art museum in New York City, US

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (LLMA), formerly the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, is a visual art museum in SoHo, Lower Manhattan, New York City. It mainly collects, preserves and exhibits visual arts created by LGBTQ artists or art about LGBTQ+ themes, issues, and people. The museum, operated by the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, offers exhibitions year-round in numerous locations and owns more than 22,000 objects, including, paintings, drawings, photography, prints and sculpture. The foundation was awarded Museum status by the New York State Board of Regents in 2011 and was formally accredited as a museum in 2016. The museum is a member of the American Alliance of Museums and operates pursuant to their guidelines. As of 2019, the LLMA was the only museum in the world dedicated to artwork documenting the LGBTQ experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Powers (artist)</span> American artist (born 1968)

Stephen J. Powers is an American contemporary artist and muralist. He is also known by the name ESPO, and Steve Powers. He lives in New York City.

Paul Cava is an American artist/photographer and private photography dealer and publisher. He currently lives and works in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. He received his BA in Cinematography from Richmond College]] CUNY in 1972 and his MFA in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1975. As a fine artist Cava has exhibited paintings, drawings and photo-based works from 1976 to the present in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. His work has been collected by private and public institutions, including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Princeton University Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania Convention Center, and The Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. His work has been showcased in numerous publications including Still Modern After All These Years, Chrysler Museum, Eyemazing Magazine and Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde. Cava was awarded Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grants in 1981 and 1999. In fall 2005, the German publisher Galerie Vevais released Children of Adam, a volume combining Cava’s photo-based art with Walt Whitman’s erotic poetry. Cava's work has been collected by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Princeton University Museum of Art, and The Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Cava is also notable for his two decades (1979–1999) of owning and operating the Paul Cava Gallery in Philadelphia. His gallery exhibited work by various artists including Robert Mapplethorpe, Ray Metzker, Joel-Peter Witkin, Lynn Davis, Jock Sturges, Irving Penn, Sean Scully, Jannis Kounellis, Mel Bochner, and Richard Misrach.

Sebastiaan Bremer is a Dutch artist who lives and works in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Villegas</span>

Jason Villegas is currently a San Francisco based contemporary artist. He has exhibited across the United States and internationally. Villegas' work utilizes a wide spectrum of mediums including sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, textile, video and performance. He has created his own artistic realm and visual language in which to explore concepts such as globalism, evolution, sexuality, cosmology, and consumerism. Motifs in Villegas' artworks include fashion logos, animal hybrids, weaponry, sales banners, clothing piles, anuses, cosmic debris, taxidermy, bear men, amorphous beasts, religious iconography, and party scenarios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorraine Fox</span> American illustrator

Lorraine Fox (1922–1976) was an American illustrator and commercial artist who illustrated magazines, book covers, and advertisements. Among the magazines she illustrated for were Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, McCall's, and Cosmopolitan. She was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invisible-Exports</span> Art gallery in New York City

Invisible-Exports is a contemporary art gallery located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. It is co-owned and directed by Risa Needleman and Benjamin Tischer and recognized for housing provocative and controversial exhibitions. The gallery represents a small roster of influential avant-garde artists, including iconic artist Genesis P-Orridge. The gallery is part of a network of galleries in the LES, referred to as a "gallery district."

Gaia is an American street artist who has received significant museum showings and critical recognition. Based in Baltimore, he has created large-scale murals worldwide to engage the community where he works in a dialogue by using historical and sociological references to these neighborhoods. Besides continuing to do commissions for private and corporate clients, Gaia is teaching two classes a semester- Drawing and Professional Development at his alma mater MICA.

Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, is an American contemporary artist, best known for his dynamic, vivid and colorful abstract paintings and monumental wall pieces. He has been active since the 1990s. In 2002 he began accepting commissions for artwork and over the course of the last decade has established a solid reputation as a commissioned artist, having appeared in several solo and group shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Armitage</span> Australian-American painter (1924–2016)

Frank Armitage was an Australian-born American painter and muralist, known for painting the backgrounds of several classic animated Disney films, designing areas of and painting murals for Walt Disney World and Tokyo DisneySea, and his biomedical visualization artwork.

Amy Feldman is an American abstract painter from Brooklyn, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinique Smith</span> American visual artist (born 1971)

Shinique Smith is an American visual artist, known for her colorful installation art and paintings that incorporate found textiles and collage materials. She is based in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Henry</span> American artist

Janet Henry is a visual artist based in New York City.

David Eugene Henry is an American painter and sculptor. He has been included in “Who’s Who in American Art” since 2006.

Scooter LaForge is an American artist based in New York's East Village. He is a painter and sculptor, and has a line of clothing for Patricia Field and has collaborated with other fashion designers. LaForge's work is "inspired by the old masters, cute fluffy animals, and sometimes iconic cartoons," drawing from a number of pop culture and artistic references, ranging from Disney and Popeye to Keith Haring and Rembrandt.

References

  1. 1 2 John E. Mitchell, "Following the Ritual," North Adams Transcript, May 2007
  2. ↑ Stefano, Guerrini (2015). ""Walt Cassidy"". Cosmopolitan Italy (June).
  3. ↑ Stefano, Guerrini (2015). ""Walt Cassidy"". Cosmopolitan Italy (June).
  4. ↑ Iman (2016). "Style File: Walt Cassidy". Destination Iman (July).
  5. ↑ Cohn, Alison S. (2015). ""It Takes Two"". ELLE (December).
  6. ↑ Studeman, Kristin Tice (August 19, 2016). "Walt Cassidy on Jet-Setting". W Magazine (August).
  7. ↑ Mikelle, Street (2018). ""Club Kid Walt Cassidy's Next Act"". Architectural Digest (January).
  8. ↑ Perella, Vincent (2022). ""Walt Cassidy"". ODDA No.23 (FALL).
  9. 1 2 Bollen, Christopher (31 March 2010). "Studio Visit: The Magic of Walt Cassidy". Interview . Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  10. ↑ Akel, Joseph (January 2012). "The Displaced Person". Artforum.
  11. ↑ Stefano, Guerrini (2015). ""Walt Cassidy"". Cosmopolitan Italy (June).
  12. ↑ Smith, Raven. (Ed.). (2008). Club Kids: From Speakeasies to Boombox and Beyond. London, UK: Black Dog Publishing
  13. ↑ Stefano, Guerrini (2015). ""Walt Cassidy"". Cosmopolitan Italy (June).
  14. ↑ Yaeger, Lynn (2015). ""Natural Instinct"". Vogue (June).
  15. ↑ Warner, Marigold (2019). ""New York Club Kids: Rewriting the Narrative"". British Journal of Photography United Kingdom (August).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.