Artist Nao Bustamante invites viewers into her studio to learn more about her practice in this virtual experience moderated by MCA Associate Curator Tara Aisha Willis. Los Angeles-based Bustamante makes precarious work encompassing performance art, video installation, filmmaking, sculpture, and writing. Using tragedy and comedy alike to manipulate popular genres and television personas, Bustamante’s work boldly addresses brown bodies, women’s labor, beauty ideals, and vulnerability. Tune in to hear what Bustamante is working on now!

Curatorial Credit
This virtual studio visit was organized by Tara Aisha Willis, Associate Curator of Performance and Public Practice.

About the Artist
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Nao Bustamante is a legendary artist, residing in Los Angeles, California. Bustamante’s precarious work encompasses performance art, video installation, filmmaking, sculpture, and writing. The New York Times says, “She has a knack for using her body.” Bustamante has presented in galleries, museums, universities, and underground sites all around the world. She has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sundance International Film Festival: New Frontier, Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, El Museo del Barrio, the first International Performance Biennial, Deformes in Santiago, Chile, the Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland, and the MCA, among others. She was also an unlikely contestant on Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. From 2001–15, she received fellowships and residencies with the following organizations: the Anonymous Was a Woman fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, Lambent Foundation fellowship, American Studies Association residency, CMAS-Benson Latin American Collection Summer Research fellowship, a residency at University of California, Riverside, and she was a scholar in residence at the Vincent Price Art Museum, in preparation for a solo exhibition. In 2008, she received the Chase Legacy award in Film, in conjunction with Kodak and HBO and in 2013, she received the Makers Muse Award from the Kindle Foundation. Bustamante’s video work is in the KADIST collection. Bustamante is an alum of the New Genres program at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Currently, she is the director of the MFA program in art at the University of Southern California Roski School of Art and Design and holds the title of professor of art.

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Tags: Chicago, COVID-19, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Nao Bustamante, Near North Side, Tara Aisha Willis, Virtual Studio Visit