Nayland Blake Doesn’t Believe in Fixed Selves
In a Hyperallergic interview published as part of its 2026 Pride Month series, artist and educator Nayland Blake discusses their view of identity as unfixed and continually remade. Blake, who is nonbinary and pansexual, is co-director of the Studio Art program at Bard College (where they earned a bachelor’s degree) and has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College. The interview references works such as the video “Negative Bunny” (1994) and the installation “Mirror Restraint” (1988–89), and notes that Blake’s work is held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. Speaking over Zoom from Tivoli, New York, Blake emphasizes movement-building and supporting other artists as a way to create the context in which one’s own work can be understood.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Museums Under Fire, Identities in Flux