Nicolaus Chaffin

Nicolaus Chaffin (b. 1978, U.S.A.) lives and works in San Francisco. He is a multi-disciplinary artist who received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004). Chaffin’s work draws upon queer history’s socially selective visibilities as well as upon observations of pleasure as locations of both problematic residence and emotional sanctuary. His multi-disciplinary practice ranges from various modes of portraiture, archive, performance, sculpture and illustration – addressing anxieties concerning queer erasure, object as witness, and visceral evidence of queer magic. Chaffin has shown in group exhibitions in Chicago, London, New York City, and San Francisco. Chaffin has taken part in the group exhibition Translocura at The Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, and will be shown in the group exhibition Bodies Are Inherently Valid in the winter of 2015 at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York City. His work has most recently appeared in publications Paramour Zine (2012) and Number Two (2013). Chaffin was selected to participate in the Fire Island Artist Residency (2012) where he collaborated with AA Bronson.