Nayland Blake

Nayland Blake has been exhibiting his work at Matthew Marks Gallery since 1993. Interracial desire, same-sex love, and racial and sexual bigotry are recurrent themes in Blake's sculptures, drawings, performances, and videos, which reflect his preoccupation with his own racial and sexual identities. In his first solo show at Matthew Marks Gallery, he exhibited eight sculptures that expanded on an earlier body of work, dealing with role playing, the skin's role in race and personal identity, and the concept of "passing" in terms of identity.

Blake (born 1960) participated in the 1991 Whitney Biennial and the 1993 Venice Biennale. The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, presented a survey of his performance-based work in 2003, and his work was the subject of a 2008 survey exhibition at Location One, New York. Blake chairs the International Photography Center-Bard MFA program and lives and works in Brooklyn.

Artist's website