Nicholas Waguespack – SAIC Graduate Exhibition 2025

SAIC SHOWS 2025 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Graduates

SAIC SHOWS 2025 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Nicholas Waguespack

Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Printmedia

Graduate Exhibition One

nwague@artic.edu

njwaguespack.com

Nicholas Waguespack (he/they) has an artistic practice that explores the intersections of identity, queerness, and community through multidisciplinary approaches including printmaking, performance, and clowning. Waguespack was born and raised in southern Louisiana. 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) and will graduate this upcoming May.
Waguespack has exhibited work throughout southern Florida and Chicago. They have presented research at ATypI, an international typography conference, in Paris, France. Most recently they have performed at the SGCI Conference held at RISD in Providence, Rhode Island and at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, IL as part of the Imprints of Time exhibition.

Nicholas Waguespack - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 2024, clown noses, discarded

The clown nose, an object often associated with joy, laughter and innocence, lying abandoned suggests a loss of playfulness. The piece represents someone leaving behind, abandoning a lighter, more humorous side of themselves.

Nicholas Waguespack - Mom, Dad, and I

Mom, Dad, and I, 2024, makeup wipe face mono print, assorted makeup products

A makeup wipe, by nature, is something that cleanses, erases, or removes, but in the context of these mono prints, it transforms into a means of leaving a lasting impression—preserving what would normally be wiped away. These prints, the remnants of a performance that I did with my parents, hold the residue of my relationships with my parents, particularly in regard to my queerness and their incomplete acceptance of it. The residue left behind by the makeup wipes embodies emotional marks of both conflict and tenderness, the layers of understanding or misunderstanding, of rejection and embrace, of closeness and distance.

Nicholas Waguespack - Face Stamp On Twink (literally, my face stamped on to a twink)

Face Stamp On Twink (literally, my face stamped on to a twink), 2024, Polaroid

Clown makeup, often representing exaggerated emotions, masks, or layers of personality, carries with it the complexity of both hiding and amplifying aspects of oneself. By transferring my makeup onto someone else I challenge the boundaries between performer and audience, self and other.

Nicholas Waguespack - Bumping Purses

Bumping Purses, 2024, inkjet print

Dolls, Barbie dolls specifically, represent a hyper-normative form of gender presentation. By placing the barbies in this position, I am making a gentle but pointed statement on the uniqueness of queer experiences, suggesting that queer joy and connection can exist and thrive even in places or with objects that might traditionally reinforce more mainstream narratives. This image of the two dolls “bumping purses” isn’t just playful; it’s a radical little moment of re-imagining queer freedom, intimacy, and even rebellion.

Nicholas Waguespack - Portrait With Parents

Portrait With Parents, 2024, Polaroid

This double-exposed Polaroid portrait layers my parents over myself, creating a dialogue between who I am and where I come from. The image holds both tension and intimacy, with their forms and mine intertwining yet remaining distinct. It speaks to the complexities of queerness within familial frameworks and the ways identities shift, merge, and resist.