“In the art of Walt Cassidy, jewelry, sculpture, drawing and photography collide. Process feeds process; he works it through, works it out even – in what constitutes an art of translation. Biography is fractured into distilled moments of metaphor and motif. Viewing his art is like sneaking a peep of a diary, but that diary is coded and enigmatic: sensory – not legible.”  

- Alice Butler for König Magazine, Berlin. 

Waltpaper (Walt Cassidyt, American, b.1972) is a gender-queer author and interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the creator of HOTGLUE, a multi-channel design brand and zine. As a visual diarist, his explorative and allegorical work is heavily rooted in personal narrative and interlocking themes of identity, sexuality, healing, transcendence and illumination. Frequently executed in chapter-like suites, his work utilizes writing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, and design.

In 1991, as a teenager, Walt Cassidy created the identity of Waltpaper and became a central figure within the Club Kids, an artistic and fashion-conscious youth movement. The group was a definitive force in New York City's underground club culture and made long-lasting contributions to mainstream art and fashion, laying the foundation for the modern day Influencer movement.

By the mid 90s, Waltpaper established The Little Paper Gallery inside of Limelight to showcase the artwork of nightlife artists and founded the art collective, BLUEPRINT, staging a series of outlaw street installations, eventually leading to his arrest during an action in a Soho subway station. In 1995, as the nightlife industry collapsed under the city’s shift towards conservative politics, he created the performance art band, BOOB, offering a colorful and theatrical counterpoint to the dominance of Grunge and foreshadowing the emergence of Electroclash.

Sidestepping away from nightlife in 1996, Walt Cassidy became Exhibitions Director for 303 Gallery. In 2002 he relocated to London, curating exhibitions with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and filmmaker Kenneth Anger. At this time, his art practice moved into photography and sculpture based works. Upon returning to New York City with a new body of work, represented by Invisible Exports Gallery, he mounted his first solo show, The Protective Motif, in 2010, followed by The Displaced Person in 2012. His artwork has been exhibited at MASS MOCA; Paul Kasmin Gallery; Deitch Projects; 303 Gallery; Torrance Art Museum; Watermill Center; Vox Populi; Miami Basel Artfair; and Leslie-Lohman Museum.

In 2014, Walt Cassidy Studio was established through a series of jewelry collections, silkscreened graphics and interior-based murals. Design collaborations include Selina Hotel, HOWM, Galeria Melissa, The Long Life China Company, ODD, Derek Lam, Opening Ceremony, The Standard Hollywood, Laloon, The Limited Edition, The Feathered, Maison 10 and Dreamachine.

Reclaiming Waltpaper as a pen name, he first wrote about his nightlife experiences as a contributor to the book, Club Kids From Speakeasies To Boombox and Beyond (2008), then wrote and curated a portfolio of archival photography for Candy Magazine Issue #8, titled “HISTORIC FICTION: Life Inside The Club Kids” (2014). The 40 page editorial became the pitch for NEW YORK: CLUB KIDS (2019), which was published by Damiani, debuted as Amazon’s #1 New Release and sold out internationally. He retitled and published a second edition as a paperback reader with revised text and new illustrations,THE CLUB KIDS (2023). He is a contributing writer to New York, Interview and Impulse magazines and has created a fiction series, HOTGLUE (2024), to be released in collectible zine editions. HOTGLUE explores the subcultural evolution of Generation X through intimate stories of a gang of friends who meet at art school in 1990. As they move across multiple decades—various drug, music and fashion trends shift their perception of themselves and New York City.

Waltpaper and Walt Cassidy Studio have been featured in publications such as British Journal of Photography, Interview, Another Man, Dazed, Architectural Digest, Vogue, Elle, Artforum, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal Magazine, The New York Times, In Style, W Magazine, Candy Magazine, Out, Style.com, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, and Harpers Bazaar.

Selected Bibliography and Press

Waltpaper, HOTGLUE, “Morning Whispers”, Book Zine. Published by Walt Cassidy Studio, 2024.

Waltpaper, “Where Club Kids Loaded Up on Macrobiotic Dinners”, New York Magazine, April 8, 2024.

Walt Cassidy, “Susanne Bartsch and Walt Cassidy Have Seen It All”, Interview Magazine, January 24, 2020

Melissa Malanut, “The Original Influencers NYC’s 90’s Club Kids”, New York Post, January 23, 2020

Mark Holgate, “Walt Cassidy - Publishes Hist New York: Club Kids Book and Collaborates With Opening Ceremony”, Vogue, November 12, 2019

Masha Orlav, “Renaissance Artist & Writer Walt Cassidy aka Waltpaper”, The Know, November 29

Lara Delmage, “Walt Cassidy - Destroyed and Reimagined”, Metal, November 2019

Brittany Natale, “Rare Photos of New York’s Iconic Club Kids”, I-D magazine, November 26, 2019

Elyssa Goodman, “When The Club Kids Ruled New York”, THEM, November 26, 2019

Jessica Heron-Langton, “Opening Ceremony Drops a Club Kid-inspired Collection”, DAZED, November 12, 2019

Nicole DeMarco, “Opening Ceremony’s New Capsule is a Love Letter to 90’s Club Kids”, I-D Magazine, November 12, 2019

Rachel Cheung, “New York Club Kids: Waltpaper’s Dazzling Ode to America’s First True Influencers”, Document Journal, November 8, 2019

Mikelle Street, “How the Club Kids Mapped Out Everything We Think About Culture Today”, Out Magazine, September 19, 2019

Miss Rosen, “Remembering the Club Kids, the Last Subculture of the Analogue Age”, Another Man, September 9, 2018

Sabrina Cooper, “Club Kid Walt Cassidy on his Epic Visual Love Letter to 90’s NYC Nightlife”, DAZED, September 2019

Christopher Bollen, “The Club Kids According to Walt Cassidy”, Interview Magazine, September 2019

Marigold Warner, “New York Club Kids: Rewriting the Narrative”, British Journal of Photography, August 16, 2019

Mikelle Street, "Club Kid Walt Cassidy's Next Act", Architectural Digest, January 16, 2018

Sheila Flynn, "The Club Kids". Daily Mail, September 4, 2017

Stefano Guerrini, "Walt Cassidy", Cosmopolitan Italy, April 27, 2017

Nicola Wylie, "The Mind of Creative Inspiration", Alumind, April 14, 2017

Alison S. Cohn, "It Takes Two", ELLE, December 2015

Lynn Yeager, "Walt Cassidy: Natural Instinct", Vogue, June 2015

Walt Cassidy, “Historic Fiction: Life Inside The Club Kids”, Candy Magazine #8, December 2014

Kembra Pfahler, “Interview - Walt Cassidy:Performance Art 101 Part I &II”, Know-Wave Radio, Dec. 2014

Honey Redmond, "Club Kid Turned Modern Day Shaman", Style.com, September 19, 2014.

Justin Fulton, "In The House: Walt Cassidy", OAK Blog, August 2014.

James Nichols, “After Dark: Meet Walt Cassidy, Artist...”, The Huffington Post, May 31, 2014.

Alice Butler, “Work-Out” - An Interview With Walt Cassidy, Koenig Magazine, 2014

Juliana Huxtable, "The Blossoming Cage", BARON #3 Magazine, 2014

Paradigm Volume 1, 2014

WarpTV/Art Brut, “Walt Cassidy”, Art Brut series, Televised Artist Profile

Ernie Glam and Alexis Dibasio, FABULOUSITY, Wildlife Press, 2013

Katherine K. Zarrella, “Quality Control”, BON Magazine, Stockholm, August/Winter 2013

Jake Shears, “Meet Waltpaper, Meet Walt Cassidy”, BUFFALO zine #2, 2013

Lorenzo Martone, “Art Basel Miami”, Fashion Week Daily, 2012

Lisa Anastos, “Dear Daily! Live From Art Basel Miami Beach, Fashion Week Daily, 2012

Victor P. Corona, “Walt Cassidy”, VITRINE Magazine, Summer 2012

Joseph Akel, “The Displaced Person”, ARTFORUM, January 2012

Kathleen Massara, “The Displaced Person”, Huffington Post, January 2012

Doug McClemont, “Top Ten Shows in New York”, Saatchi Online, January 2012

Beth Citron, Critic’s Pick, ARTFORUM, April 2010

Christopher Bollen, “The Magic of Walt Cassidy”, Interview Magazine, March 2010

Alex Gartenfeld, “The Interpretation of Dreams”, Interview Magazine, April 2010

Jack Pierson, “Diary”, Whitewall Magazine, Summer 2008

Club Kids, Black Dog Pubishing Limited, London, 2008

John E. Mitchell, “Following the Ritual”, North Adams Transcript, May 2007

Selected Exhibitions

2024

HOTGLUE Pop-Up Reading, January 24th, Village Works, New York.

2023

Power Flower - Residential Mural Commission for June Parina, Savannah, Georgia.

2022

The Dance of The Plumeria - Outdoor Garden Mural Commission, HOWM Restaurant, New York.

2021

Tropical Nest - Residential Mural Commission for Michele Saunders, Catskill, New York.

2020

Things On Walls, curated by Benjamin Tischer/New Discretions, Affective Care, New York.

2015

Interface: Queer Artists Forming Communities Through Social Media, curated by Walt Cessna,  Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York.

2014

The Botanica, curated by AA Bronson and Michael Bühler-Rose, Invisible Exports, New York

Trip The Light Fantastic, curated by Natalie Kates Projects, High Line Gallery, New York.

Walt Cassidy - The Nervous Peal Collection, Jewelry Pop Up, ODD., New York

2013

ARTCORE, Galerie Melilli Manchinetti, Berlin

Drawing Down The Moon, curated by Andrew Suggs, VOX POPULI, Philadelphia, PA

Devil’s Heaven, The Watermill Center, Watermill NY

Bufffalo #2 ,The Opening, Madrid, Paris, Tokyo, London

The Wishing Well, Galeria Melissa, New York, NY

I Killed My Father, I Ate Human Flesh: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Allegra LaViola Gallery, New York, NY

2012

NADA Art Fair Miami, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, Booth 305, Miami FL

BANZAI!!!, The Red Lotus Room, Brooklyn NY

The Displaced Person, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York, NY

2011

The Unseen, The Torrance Museum of Art, Torrance, CA

2010

Summer Camp / Lost Horizon, curated by Billy Miller, This Is Exile, Berlin, Germany

The Protective Motif, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York, NY

Closed For Installation, 303 Gallery, New York, NY

2007

The Believers, curated by Elizabeth Thomas and Nato Thompson, MASS MOCA, North Adams, MA

Womanizer, curated by Kembra Pfahler, Deitch Projects, New York, NY

2006

Gay Art Now, curated by Jack Pierson, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY

2005

Male Multiple, curated by Desi Santiago, Stay Gold Gallery, Brooklyn, NY