OCMA | Orange County Museum of Art

Born in New York Hospital in 1960, Nathan Blake was educated at Bard and Cal Arts in Southern California. He lived in San Francisco early in his career, making an important contribution to the arts community, and has taught there from time to time. 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. Nayland Blake's mixed-media work in sculpture and installation has been variously described as disturbing, provocative, elusive, tormented, sinister, hysterical, brutal, and tender.
An artist, writer and educator?currently the chair of the MFA program at the International Photography Center in New York?Blake has exhibited his works in major exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe. His work is included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, The Studio Museum of Harlem, LA MoCa, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the DeYoung Museum, among others. As a writer his work has appeared in Interview Magazine, Artforum, Out, and OutLook; and he is the author of numerous catalog essays.