Artist Statement
Nicholas Waguespack’s interdisciplinary practice explores identity, family, and queerness through printmaking, performance, and clowning. Raised in a conservative Louisiana town as the child of a Catholic deacon, their work examines tensions between personal history and self-determined identity. They transform ephemeral moments, such as the application of clown makeup, into layered, tactile expressions that blur the boundaries between personal narrative and collective experience.
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Waguespack’s practice dismantles inherited belief systems while also processing their evolving queer existence. Through printmaking they engage with physical residue, using repetition and layering to question identity’s permanence. Performance introduces unpredictability into their practice, inviting audiences into moments of play, vulnerability, and transformation. The clown, a recurring motif, serves as both a permission-giver and a disruptive force—destabilizing expectations while offering space for joy, absurdity, and introspection.
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By merging traditional and experimental approaches, Waguespack examines queerness as a site of resistance, reinvention, and celebration. Whether printing family portraits onto makeup wipes to explore intimacy and transformation, interviewing their parents about queerness while turning them into clowns, or orchestrating performances that challenge spectatorship, their work fosters spaces where identity can be questioned, performed, and reimagined.
About
Nicholas Waguespack (he/they) was born and raised in southern Louisiana and currently lives in Chicago, IL. They hold a BA in Art + Design from Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale, FL, where they managed Gallery 217 and served as an Education Associate at the NSU Art Museum. Waguespack is a graduate candidate in the Printmedia Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Their multidisciplinary practice spans printmaking, performance, and clowning, delving into explorations of identity and queerness.
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CV
Education
2025 MFA in Studio Art, Printmedia, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2023 BA in Art + Design, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
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Professional Experience
08/2024- Present: Graduate Assistant, Printmedia Department, SAIC, Chicago, IL
08/2023- Present: Printmedia Student Worker, Printmedia Department, SAIC, Chicago, IL
08-2023- Present: Teaching Assistant, Printmedia and Photography Departments, SAIC, Chicago, IL
11/2022-07/2023: Gallery Manager, Gallery 217, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
01/2022-11/2022: Education Associate, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL
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Group Exhibitions
2025, Queer Impressions - Experimental Approaches to Print, Ohklahomo, Chicago, IL (Forthcoming) 2025, Push/Pull, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL (Forthcoming)
2025, In An Instant, Union Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
2025, Erasures and Echoes, SAIC Galleries, Chicago, IL
2025, Graduate Exhibition, SAIC Galleries, Chicago, IL
2025, Metamorphosis, Dittmar Memorial Gallery, Northwestern Univeristy, Evanston, IL
2024, Experimental Portraiture, SAIC Open Studios, Chicago, IL
2024, Small Works III, SAIC Open Studios, Chicago, IL
2024, Processing Ambiguity: An Exploration of Printmedia, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL
2023, Connecting the Dots, Co-Prosperity, Chicago, IL
2023, Small Works, SAIC Open Studios, Chicago, IL 2023, Red, SAIC Open Studios, Chicago, IL
2023, Works on Paper, SAIC Open Studios, Chicago, IL
2023, Chance Encounters: The Art of Archive, Exchange, Interaction and Works On Paper, Studio 18, Pembroke Pines, FL
2023, BluPrnt, Bridge Red Studios, Miami, FL
2023, Twisted Strands: Voices With Common Threads, Edge Zones, Miami, FL
2023, 13th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2023, 12th Juried Art Exhibition, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2022, American Graffiti, Studio 18, Pembroke Pines, FL
2022, Visions of Eunoia, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
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Curatorial Experiences
2025, Queer Impressions - Experimental Approaches to Print, Ohklahomo, Chicago, IL (Forthcoming)
2024, Processing Ambiguity: An Exploration of Printmedia, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL
2023, 13th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
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Public Performances
2025, Imprints of Time, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL
2024, Immaculate Conception: Dragging Performance, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL
2024, Fine Print: Rule of Thirds, RISD Tap Room, SGCI Conference Providence, RI
2023, It Must Matter, SAIC Performance Festival, Chicago, IL
2023, (TO)(GET)(HER(E)), SAIC Performance Festival, Chicago, IL
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Publications
2022, Publication of Wander Type: Vieux Carré
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Presentations
2025, The Inadequate Body in Clowning, Visiting Artist Lecture and Workshop for The Inadequate Body (Performance Class), SAIC, Chicago, IL (Forthcoming)
2024, Clowning Around (Graduate Talk), SAIC, Chicago, IL
2023, Presented at Competitions & Conferences: Why Students Should Enter, George Mason University, Fairfax County, Virginia
2023 Presented research and publication “Wander Type: Vieux Carré” at ATypI, Association Typographique International, Paris, France
