Nayland Blake on Queer Art, Identity, and Building Platforms

Hyperallergic interviews Nayland Blake, a nonbinary and pansexual artist and co-director of Bard College's Studio Art program, as part of their 2026 Pride Month series. Blake discusses their approach to identity as unfixed, using art to interrogate rather than express a fixed self. They cite influences like Richard Foreman, Chip Delany, Kathy Acker, Jack Smith, John Waters, AA Bronson, and General Idea. Blake recalls advocating for Bard's first gay history course with Gerry Gomez Pearlberg and working with Catherine Lord at CalArts. They name peers including Larry Johnson, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Bob Gober, Marlene McCarty, and Jerome Caja, noting the AIDS crisis as a catalyst for queer art. Blake's work is in collections of MoMA, the Whitney, and the Brooklyn Museum. They have a book of collected writings from last year and a new outdoor piece opening at Art Omi on June 27.