For this special extra January program, LDG is excited to welcome Nayland Blake for a discussion on the the connections between making art and practicing kink, based on their recently published published book “My Studio is a Dungeon is The Studio”

For four decades, artist, writer, curator, and teacher Nayland Blake has been at the center of discussions of queer aesthetics and contemporary art. Their work has examined racial hybridity, the ins and outs of the BDSM world, and the importance of self-representation. From interviews and critical essays to performance scripts and collage pieces, My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio gathers forty years of Blake’s groundbreaking thought and writing on their personal explorations of kink and creativity as well as on the making, teaching, and curating of art and queer culture. Whether delving into furry fandom or analyzing art, Blake bridges the art and queer kink communities. They also argue that queer artists must champion the work of their peers and elders. As Blake demonstrates throughout, sexual self-expression is an extension of artistic self-expression: they are the same.

Nayland (they/them)  is a Queer, nonbinary artist, writer, educator and curator, whose works on race, sexuality and gender have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. They have taught in the kink community for over twenty years, on topics such as food play, designing kink scenes, erotic humiliation, and chastity. Their career retrospective “No Wrong Holes - 30 years of Nayland Blake" opened in 2019 at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles  and closed in 2021 at the MIT LIst Center. They recently published their collected writing: My Studio Is A Dungeon Is The Studio, with Duke University Press. In 2004 they were named International Pipe Bear. They are a member of Delta International Brotherhood.