Artist Statement
J Woltz constructs immersive videos and environments that operate like living sets from a twisted reality show that forgot it was being filmed. Tufted textiles, goopy props, discarded plastics, and glossy surfaces accumulate and bundle into unstable ecosystems where materials that should not coexist insist on breathing together.
Drag, puppetry, and theatrical installation intertwine within these worlds to examine the performance of social power. Delvey, a drag persona that splits into three different forms, clutches at identity through status symbols. Roxy pursues aspiration and gossip so relentlessly that it shocks her into a new realm. Fruitcake, a chaotic puppet and agent of disruption, tears through structure and meaning alike. Excess becomes a survival mechanism in a society obsessed with control.
Drawing from queer and Marxist feminist thought, camp theory, and cultural horror, Woltz employs satire as a method of resistance. Humor opens the door, and unease follows close behind. By inviting viewers into these fractured, maximalist environments and videos, Woltz exposes the fragility of identity, the volatility of power, and the absurdity of behavioral norms. Nothing remains stable, which reveals exactly how the world works when no one and everyone is watching.
Artist Bio
J Woltz is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose work shape-shifts between performance, sculpture, video, and poetic world-building. Rooted in queer experience and theatricality, Woltz constructs playful yet critical environments that explore gossip, power, and the fragile absurdity of social hierarchies. Their characters, often campy, chaotic, and delightfully uncanny, navigate worlds where desire, humor, societal collapse, and fear collide.
Woltz earned a BA in Creative Writing with a minor in Social Entrepreneurship from Florida State University in 2023, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Studio Art at Florida State University (expected 2026). Their research embraces community-based and arts-based methodologies, reframing overlooked narratives within contemporary culture.
Their exhibitions and performances include: Abstracto, Land of Dreams at LeMoyne Arts (Tallahassee, 2023), Echos: Memory at Meno Parkas Gallery (Kaunas, Lithuania, 2024), and Queer as Faust (Tallahassee, 2025). Publications and research include the poetry collection Poetry of the Wild Flower (Tiny Seed Press, 2023), and the co-authored paper Lost to the Canon: Reframing Art History through Arts-Based Research in a Community of Practice, presented at ECQI in Edinburgh, Scotland (2025).
Woltz has been recognized with the Steven D. Schloff Creative Writing Scholarship Fund Award for their story “Freedom Bridge” (2022), and the Brian Andrew McLachlin Arts Enrichment Fund Award (2024).
