Kalup Linzy: If it Don’t Fit is the first museum survey of the artist’s work, and includes approximately twenty videos made over the last seven years, a drawing suite and a one-night acoustic performance. From his original take on the soap opera and family drama to his foul-mouthed music videos and filmic shorts, this compilation tracks the artist’s range and cast of characters. The title, If it Don’t Fit, is appropriated from a song Linzy used in a recent video, and evokes his exploration of the emotional realities of aspiration, disappointment, sexuality and belonging.

Linzy first presented his motley crew of characters at the Studio Museum in African Queen (2005), and then again in Frequency (2005), a group exhibition of emerging artists. Since then, he has continued to draw on the formal qualities of a variety of American performance genres: the thorny humor of minstrelsy and sketch comedy; the innuendo of prewar blues and hokum; the hyperbole of early cinema and soap opera; and the slickness of popular culture, house music and the gay ball and club scenes.

The video component of If it Don’t Fit is organized into three hour-long programs, on view throughout the duration of the exhibition. Each highlights a recurring theme in Linzy’s work. Taking its point of departure from the artist’s ongoing negotiation of love, longing and loss, The Pursuit of Happyness features both narrative and music videos. Da Churen brings together works from the artist’s iconic “Churen” (2003-05) series, which traces a set of family archetypes, narrated over a series of phone calls. Finally, Ride to Da (Art) Club juxtaposes videos that self-reflexively take on issues of ambition and belonging in the contemporary art world as well as the pop music and club scene.

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