Nell Pierce

For the past decade, Nell Pierce has used the creative process as a “container for vulnerability and truth telling,” where art is a means of amplifying story. A freelancer and teaching artist, Pierce has collaborated with people of all ages through various organizations, analyzing power in dominant narratives and creating personal and collective narratives through visual art, writing, and theater. Pierce is part of two different Minneapolis-based art collectives, Poligraphix and Studio Thalo, that have painted over 20 live murals at events that center justice and healing. She recently received a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to create a body of work called Q’llage, a series of collages drawing connections between the resilience of queer communities and the resilience of plants. “I’m drawing from my own experience and 40 interviews with local LGBTQ2IA+ folks about their ‘coming in’ stories, how they are continuously coming into their truths around gender, sexuality, family, and love,” Pierce explains. “I revere the ways queer people, particularly BIPOC folks, have learned to take care of each other and listen to their truths in the midst of systemic violence—expanding what family means, opening up who and how many we love, and exploding the gender binary into a million possibilities. I want to shed light on these ecosystems and growth processes, and I want to call viewers in to changing the social conditions in which we all grow by redistributing resources to those who are leading the fight for our collective liberation.” —JDG