Artist Talk: Natalie Brewster Nguyen

In this artist talk, Natalie Brewster Nguyen will discuss the ideas and processes behind we need to talk, a large-scale installation currently on view at MOCA Tucson. In the exhibition, Nguyen uses balloons, text, audio, and participatory artist activations to explore the elusive nature of communication. These elements encourage presence, invite active engagement, and offer ways to practice mutual responsibility and care.

About Natalie Brewster Nguyen

Natalie Brewster Nguyen is a Queer BIPOC multi-disciplinary performance and installation artist, writer, actor, entrepreneur and movement artist.  They are a lifelong activist and community organizer, consulting and educating around intersectional social justice issues with their company Justice Movement. Other passions include circus, housing justice, sustainability and sex worker rights. They collectively co-parent their kids, and believe strongly in harm reduction, abolition, anti-capitalism, and liberation. They are a Co-Executive Director of an historic art studio warehouse and 501c3 non-profit called Splinter Collective in Cukson aka Tucson, AZ. Splinter Collective is an event space focused on art, social justice, and amplifying marginalized artists, voices and experiences.  Nat’s writing and poetry has been published in several anthologies and she has featured in multiple films such as the Celluloid Bordello (streaming now). They collaborate with a variety of artists, spaces, and performance companies both locally and internationally.  She is a regular collaborator with La Pocha Nostra, Borderlands Theater, and Cirque Roots, and many others.