Photo: Dwayne Deloatch
Everyone within CJ Wallace's inner circle knows about his obsession with photography. The multifaceted creative has been snapping photos of his family and friends since he was a kid — one who grew up with a Kodak disposable camera attached to his hand.
After spending most of his life taking pictures, CJ, born Christopher Jordan Wallace, finally presented some of the best images from his epic archive to the public. The son of the late Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans put his work on display at the first-ever art exhibit for his Close Knit Gallery during Art Basel Miami.
"I feel like we're in an era of point-and-shoot where it's just become the most popular thing," Wallace tells iHeartRadio. "I've always just loved photos. I've always loved film and losing DJ Clark Kent.... I think it was when I started going through the photos of him that I took. It just made me realize how many impactful photos I have and how many people I've taken photos of that aren't here anymore from certain members of Junior M.A.F.I.A. who have passed away and other DJs like 50 Grand, Big Kap. A lot of the DJs that worked with my father, unfortunately, they've all passed away. So it's just crazy seeing photos and seeing people who aren't here anymore. It just makes you reflect."
Following Clark Kent's passing in October, CJ Wallace devised a plan to bring his Close Knit Gallery to life. The 28-year-old photographer and actor's full blueprint didn't fully materialize until he attended ComplexCon in Las Vegas last month. That's when his creative juices truly began to flow. He gathered up the best 15 photos in his archive and put them in frames. He also enlisted his publicist Heather Wolverton of the Grēot Agency to produce the installation and help create the centerpiece of his photo exhibit — massive balls of orange and yellow yarn. Wallace says the yarn is a primary piece of the gallery's identity and represents how close he is to his family. It fits perfectly with the gallery's name, which was inspired by words his father, the late Notorious B.I.G., said in unreleased footage he saw a few years ago.
"Close-knit family s**t was a slogan for my last brand, Frank White, but I really got it from a video of my dad," he explains. "He was talking about his close-knit family and how he only f**ked with his close-knit family. It's some crazy footage that I had never seen before of him just being super vulnerable. I never really saw him in that space so that always stuck with me. I feel like everybody that's been in my corner, I've always considered them close-knit family. So everybody that was on those walls were definitely close-knit family."
Wallace hosted the Close Knit Gallery's first-ever exhibition inside Salaam Remi's MuseZeum in Wynwood. Upon entering CJ's space, artist Reyna Noriega greeted the room with colorful paintings that stay true to the close-knit theme. One of her paintings of a woman has two long, brown pieces of yarn that descend from the top of her scalp and are meticulously braided into the canvas. Wallace's massive collection of black-and-white photos hung right next to Noriega's work.
The wall featured an array of intimate snapshots from Wallace's everyday life with family and friends. One photo shows him standing with his superstar mother followed by another image of him hugging his grandmother, Voletta Wallace, in front of her house. Below the photo of Biggie's mom is a candle featuring an image of the late DJ Clark Kent and two balls of yarn on both sides. Wallace features several photos of his father's trusted DJ that he took over the years, yet this particular image was special to him. Wallace added black-and-red angel wings and a halo to Kent's photo to create a rare t-shirt he hung directly above the massive yarn installation. He also sold a limited amount of the shirts.
A collection of remarkable paintings by Stephanie Amon to the left of Wallace's photos. The talented artist displayed her four jaw-dropping paintings of André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, the late Nipsey Hussle, and world-renowned artist Takashi Murakami. On the other side of the room, versatile artist Gianni Lee displayed a huge painting entitled "King of Swords." He also made another painting in real-time while guests watched. Wallace and his team plan to curate more events like this in the future as they continue to build their community.
"I think 2025 is going to be a really cool space to take Close Knit Studio and use it as a vehicle in different arenas," Heather says. "Right now it's a space focusing on the photos, but CJ's very multifaceted, so it's panel conversations, it's close-knit dinners. It's a lot of things. We're building a community and it's a space where we want to start growing in that way."
We caught up with CJ Wallace after the event to learn everything about his plans for the Close Knit Gallery. Scroll below to see the full conversation.
iHR: It's good to talk to you again. I remember when we met you said the gallery, or at least the idea of it, came about after DJ Clark's death. Can you expand on that?
CJ: Yeah, basically, it was really an idea, I'd say even before Clark's death. It was something that I definitely talked about to other photographers, close friends, people that were always around me and that I would often take pictures of. They would often mention, 'yo get them framed' or 'this would be dope in a certain type of space, you should put your photos up.' Even certain family members. My dad — who's alive and lives with me — he always was like, 'You need to put these photos in frames and put 'em in the house.' So that was always something that just kind of stuck with me. Because I was kind of doing other endeavors, it was always just kind of on the back burner. I wasn't really serious about photography. I never thought it was something I should take seriously. It was always a hobby and something I always loved since I was a kid.
Even being a kid and having the little Kodak disposables, that was something I was really big on. Me and my siblings, we would always have those around the house and would look forward to getting them developed and putting them in the little family photo albums, That was our little tradition as kids. So as I've gotten older, it just kind of stuck with me. Even in high school, taking photography class. I always love film. Clark was always someone that I feel like was a mentor to me. He would always be there for me no matter what, be someone I could talk to about anything really, whether it was creative, whether it was personal. He was always someone I felt like I could let my guard down with, and he was always just a real spirit. Everyone could attest to that. So after his funeral, it was just in my head. I need to put his photos in frames. I wanted to send them to his family.
What inspired the name "Close Knit Gallery"?
Close-knit family s**t was a slogan for my last brand, Frank White. But I really got it from a video of my dad. He was talking about just his close-knit family and how he only f**ked with his close-knit family. It's some crazy footage that I had never seen before of him just being super vulnerable and I never really saw him in that space. So that always stuck with me. I feel like everybody that's been in my corner, I've always considered them close-knit family. So everybody that was on those walls were definitely close-knit family. Just the idea of the yarn kind of connecting to everybody. Everybody's connected. It's all weaved in. There's so many different slogans and phrases and analogies that can tie it all in, but I just feel like that yarn is a huge representation of that and being able to create art out of it with the help of Heather. She made them, it was really an art project. We really sat down and tried to figure out how we can create something special, create a beautiful moment that people will remember. I think we executed it very well.
You all did. It was a very successful event. You had a lot of different people come in. I was impressed by a lot of different paintings the other artists did including the live painting Gianni Lee made. I thought it was a great launch for what you're doing. You said you saw your dad talking about close-knit family in a video. Was that a random video of him just talking?
It was crazy, man. So a few years ago I had gotten approached by this guy who had obtained a bunch of footage of my dad that was supposed to be destroyed, and it was for some TV show that never ended up getting aired. But this guy just had this footage. I want to say over 10 hours of footage. I've never seen my dad in that capacity, just chilling, super vulnerable. Cameras just rolling. It was crazy, man. I'm still trying to figure out how I can obtain this footage. He talked about his relationship with my mom and his relationship with my grandmother. He was just bearing his soul for some reason. It was insane. It was kind of like a little personal diary almost, but it was just in this specific moment. It was only like 72 hours or three days they were filming, but they captured a lot of stuff in this footage like him performing and him with JAY-Z and Dame [Dash]. Him with a bunch of huge key players at this time. Some of the Junior M.A.F.I.A guys are wearing Death Row T-shirts in the footage. It's crazy. It's insane because it's like all before the s**t started. So it's just really wild to see. There's got to be a way, but I have to obtain that footage somehow.
It sounds like the early beginnings of what could have been a documentary or an early version of a reality show at that time.
Exactly, exactly.
I'm glad that you got to see all of that because if anyone's going to see it, it should be you.
Right? Absolutely.
So besides Heather, was there anybody else who you leaned on or sought advice from to help you launch the gallery?
Yeah, I'd say my close friends, definitely. I'd say my brother. Definitely my girl, definitely the closest people around me. I didn't really tell a lot of people about this. Even T'yanna, my sister, I talked to her about it a little bit. Everyone that really knows me knows how much I love photography, so they weren't surprised. The people that were surprised were the people who don't really know me. I didn't even tell my mom. She was like, "How did the event go? Thanks for telling me." It was so last minute and impromptu, but I didn't really get to tell anybody. I wanted it to be an under-the-radar kind of thing so people can know I'm serious about it and I'm not just talking about it to everyone. It's been a passion of mine since I was a kid, so it only made sense for me, but the closest people around me were definitely the ones rooting me on for sure.
What's your overall goal for the gallery? What are you trying to do with it?
Right now, I want to become a better photographer. So for me, it's just keep shooting. Keep doing what I'm doing, but for the gallery itself, I think I just want to keep making it bigger. I want more photos. I want to be able to get more artists involved and keep growing this to become its own Art Basel. Eventually I want it to be its own event. That's really the goal. I definitely want to travel. I want to touch different places.
I see you taking it to different places, especially in the New Year. I feel like it's going to be a good time for you to do that. I know that you've known Salaam Remi for a while. You did the event last year where he debuted the paintings of your dad and Nas. So when you approached him with this idea to have the event there, what was his reaction?
He's always been supportive. I feel like even after that event where he displayed his two pieces, he was always like, "Anything you want to do, just let me know." So having him in our corner, he was literally the first person I thought of. Having a space in that location. Amazing location. It wasn't even a second thought. He's always been supportive of artists and creatives in general. So yeah, that place is sort of like a hub at the end of the day.
I think that was the perfect place for you. So what's next for you in the new year?
I definitely want to continue to grow what we just accomplished. I want to try to take it somewhere. I'm not sure where yet, but we definitely want to keep this going. Keep the Close Knit Gallery moving. Other than that, I'm going to keep coming up with different ideas and coming up with some new crazy s**t. Other than photography. I definitely want to be in New York more often so hopefully some cool shit in New York soon.
I know you had a couple of other things going on. Are you involved in any other business ventures?
CJ: This is really it. I kind of took a step back from Frank White. really looking at different opportunities obviously with the gallery. just more CJ Wallace-focused things. Heather can speak to all the different ideas she has. But yeah, we've got a lot of things on the horizon.
Heather: We've been planting seeds the last two years. We did a panel conversation last year at Art Basel. We did a mixer in Paris, and I think continuing those things and partnering with other like-minded creatives and artists that we can showcase like Gianni Lee, et cetera.
CJ: I just want to continue to be creative, whether it be in music, whether it be fashion, whether it be showcasing my photography. I want to make a couch, I want to do some crazy s**t. I've always had so many different interests. I might get back into acting, who knows? You know what I'm saying? I'm really interested in writing scripts and developing content as well. So there's a lot of different things on the horizon.
So if money or time wasn't an issue, what would your dream gallery event look like?
That's a crazy one. After going to SCOPE and going to Basel, I mean, I think it's like a mix between the two. Definitely something cannabis related. I feel like adding that to those elements would only make it that much cooler —— even if it's a little space for you to go smoke and it's art in there. There are massage chairs, there's something crazy activated. You know what I mean? An activated cannabis experience that's also SCOPE-like. I like SCOPE because it's on the beach. That's one of my favorite shows. Then you add in the cool elements and different brands that come in, and it's traveling as well. It's definitely got to move around. But yeah, a cool ass art show on the beach. I don't think you could beat that.