Nell Pierce

Nell is a collage artist, acrylic painter, muralist and teaching artist who sees art as a powerful tool for telling both individual and collective stories. They were raised in California and Maine and fell in love with the artist and organizing community in Minneapolis in 2014. They’ve since resided on this beautiful and occupied Dakota homeland, Mni Sota Makoce, surrounded by people who teach them to live in questions about how to be in right relationship with this place as a European-American. 

They’ve been a facilitator and teacher for over a decade, working with organizations like Telling My Story and the Speaking Out Collective to support people of all ages in schools, community centers, prisons, and other settings to connect to themselves and feel agency in creating their own narratives through visual art and theater. In 2024, they started teaching art classes for adults out of their studio.

They have been part of the Studio Thalo collective with Olivia Levins Holden and Bayou Bay since 2015, and together they’ve created over 40 graphic recordings — both live paintings and digital drawings — to capture events and conversations that center justice and healing. They share studio space, resources, and ideas. They are also part of a larger muralist collective, Creatives After Curfew, housed in the same studio space. 

In their personal practice, they create paintings and collages (primarily portraits) on commission. They are currently working on a multi-year series, Q’llage, that explores how the strategies that support them and their queer community to stay true to themselves are mirrored in the natural world — drawing from their own experience and interviews with people in their LGBTQ2IA+ community.