Trans artist Nonamey finds community, inspiration in Portland

  • by JL Odom
  • Friday September 20, 2024
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Nonamey sits in his studio surrounded by his art. At top and lower right are his take on Andy Warhol's famous Campbell's soup cans. Photo: Courtesy Nonamey
Nonamey sits in his studio surrounded by his art. At top and lower right are his take on Andy Warhol's famous Campbell's soup cans. Photo: Courtesy Nonamey

San Francisco has the first-ever Transgender District, the Office of Trans Initiatives, a designated month to honor trans history, and the status as a sanctuary city for trans and gender-nonconforming people, but there's another trans-embracing metropolis on the West Coast: Portland.

It's where multimedia artist Nonamey calls home.

"It's the city where I feel, in many ways, the safest to be myself, to express myself," he said in a Zoom video call with the Bay Area Reporter.

Known for his cartoon-esque sculptures and installations using cardboard, acrylic, spray paint, and paper, Nonamey, who is trans and Two-Spirit and uses one name, is an observer of everyday life, drawn to people and their habits, material items and commonplace settings.

His work includes recreations of kitchens and other rooms, public spaces such as subway cars, and consumer objects like aerosol and soup cans, cigarette packs, mailboxes, and electronics.

"I'm fascinated by objects that humans interact with, that they find aesthetically pleasing, that they find mechanically useful. I want to recreate those objects and understand them. Perhaps that's the neurodivergent individual in me striving to understand fellow humanity. I understand a lot of people through the objects they surround themselves with," Nonamey, 32, said.

His work has been shown in the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles (June 2024), as part of the "Queer Kicks" group exhibition at Schlomer Haus Gallery in San Francisco (November-December 2023) and in the Museum of Museums in Seattle (April 2023).

"I've been all over the world with my art," he said, "and Portland has continually felt the most creative and the most supportive."

In the City of Roses, Nonamey's been a featured artist at Gallery Go Go, the Dinolandia Museum, Mint Gallery, and, most recently, Brassworks Gallery, where he had a solo exhibition in June.

"For me, and for a lot of people that I know in the trans community, it's been a real hub for artists," he said about Brassworks.

Sculptures created by Nonamey resemble Krylon cans of spray paint. Photo: Courtesy Nonamey  

Migration
From the Bad River and Lac du Flambeau Tribes, Nonamey was born in Wisconsin but spent the majority of his adolescence in northern New Mexico — namely Taos. He left the so-called Land of Enchantment at age 17.

"I decided small town life wasn't for me, so I moved to Los Angeles," he said.

After a 12-year stint in LA, he moved up the coast to Portland, where he's lived for the past three years.

"Coming from a small town in America, even as progressive as Taos was, it had a lot of uncomfortabilities, a lot of pitfalls to be a queer person. So I really value what Portland is and what it's been for me. It's home. It's absolutely my safe space."

Nonamey resides in Portland with his two children and spouse, Stay Tuft, a trans and nonbinary multidisciplinary artist whose work includes tufted fiber pieces, painting, sculptures and street art installations.

Said Nonamey, "To be a queer-presenting, trans-presenting family, it's important to be able to walk down the street and know that we are safe and there are allies around us. [Portland] feels like an ally city, where, if we're not surrounded by trans people, we're surrounded by a lot of people that would support us and keep an eye out for us."

A thriving art community
Nonamey finds inspiration in the street art in the city — the graffiti, wheatpaste art and murals on buildings, signs, sidewalks, utility boxes, and other public structures and surfaces throughout its neighborhoods.

"I love finding a new piece that's up along the Willamette [River] or along the train tracks or a train car and be like, 'Oh, I know that person,'" he said.

Artists in the city, including Nonamey, often do "street art drops," which involves making an in-the-moment decision to create a piece at a certain location.

"I've done a number where you just walk in on the street and you see something slightly out of place, or something that says, 'Take me.' That's a way that a lot of artists communicate with one another," he shared.

There's in-person and in-proximity communication among the Portland art community as well. Nonamey is one of the 50-plus artists with a studio space in North Coast Seed Studios, located in Portland's Lower Albina neighborhood, near the Willamette River and a railway yard.

"We're definitely a community here. We all look out for each other. We all kind of check in with each other. All the trans people know who the trans people are in the building," he said.

During his interview with the B.A.R., Nonamey shared that he had spoken with a neighboring studio artist earlier that day: "I've just spent my morning, kind of salon style, talking with them about art and life, about being trans."

The personal connection with fellow artists extends to mural collaborations and art openings, for which they come together outside of their studios.

"I've noticed that perhaps a lot of us, like in any community, we have our home life, we have our studio life, [which is] very solitary, but we yearn for each other in a way," he said.

Nonamey's own home and work lives overlap, as he creates his art within the same North Coast Seed studio space as his spouse.

"Sharing a studio with Nonamey feels like stepping into a comic book-style 'choose your own adventure' story. One day, I'm working beside a vibrantly painted subway car; the next, I'm immersed in a dreamy bedroom filled with nostalgic shapes and rad band posters. It's a constantly evolving, inspiring space—alive with excitement and, of course, cardboard," Stay Tuft wrote in an Instagram message to the B.A.R.

Nonamey's also found opportunities to connect with other Pacific Northwest queer artists for projects. For the 2024 Bumbershoot Arts + Music Festival in Seattle, held August 31 and September 1, he created the installation, "This Mess We Have Made," with Seattle-based trans artist Clyde Petersen.

"Working on doing this installation with Clyde has been kind of a dream. It's really fun because we're both friends, but we've never worked together, so this has been a really good opportunity to stretch those muscles and also build community," he said.

The collaborative piece depicts a shipwreck, featuring a massive Kraken-like creature, the cause of the ship's destruction, surging up out of a cement basin.

"It's the biggest installation I've done in the Pacific Northwest, that's for sure," said Nonamey.

Petersen, 44, is also a musician in the indie rock band, Your Heart Breaks, and film director, whose work includes the stop-motion animated film "Torrey Pines" and the more recent "Even Hell Has Its Limits" (2023).

"I have been a fan of Nonamey's art for a long time, and the opportunity to collaborate on an installation for Bumbershoot was the highlight of my year. I don't always get to work with other trans artists, particularly trans artists who share an affinity for working in the medium of cardboard, so it was very special," wrote Petersen in an email to the B.A.R.

Petersen envisions pairing up with Nonamey again for a future exhibition.

"I'm dreaming of a collaborative museum show with Nonamey and our fellow West Coast cardboard artist peer, the folksinger Phranc," he commented.

Phranc, who uses one name, is an iconic Jewish lesbian musician with several albums under her belt, including "Folksinger" (1985), "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (1989) and "Goofyfoot" (1995). Based in Southern California, she explores queerness and gender expression in her songs and art. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Transitions
It was only a few years ago that Nonamey began to produce color pieces.

"I was doing black-and-white painted sculptures since [age] 17, so for about a decade," he said.

Notably, the visual shift in his work took place at the same time he came out as trans.

"In the pandemic, I felt like color was my root. It was who I was as a queer person, I needed to introduce color; I needed to introduce life. I needed to introduce this next phase," he shared.

Nonamey also found a new source of inspiration — mass-produced art — during that pivotal period, creating four large soup cans, each with the wording "familiar bullshit" painted on it. The pieces were a nod to a certain queer and legendary artist.

"[Andy] Warhol came up, and the Campbell soup can — you've seen it; you know it; you know it's a Warhol screenprint. And it's familiar bullshit. I wanted to play with that a little bit," he said.

He incorporated the giant soup cans, situated in his kitchen, as his Zoom meeting backdrop.

"People liked them, and I thought, 'Well, if they like this, I suppose I should just keep going and see what happens.' So I continued to make more sculptures, and that was really my introduction to doing color," recalled Nonamey.

Prioritizing trans, queer voices — including his own
On being a trans, Two-Spirit artist during a time of anti-trans legislation and rhetoric, Nonamey said, "I'm challenging the predominantly white cis art world by purely existing, by purely creating. ... I'm maneuvering in a world that is not built for a trans individual, necessarily. So I've had to find a community to support me and individuals that are willing to step up for me and advocate for me."

"But, most importantly, beyond all of that, is [that] I need to advocate for myself continually. I need to step up and say, 'I'm here. My work is valid,'" he added.

Nonamey recollected his experience at the Other Art Fair in Brooklyn, New York in May 2023, where he was exhibiting an immersive installation shown in the backstage area of a drag show. The Other Art Fair, held annually in major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Sydney, showcases independent, new and emerging artists and features live music and performances. At the 2023 Brooklyn OAF, Nonamey came across people with various perspectives on drag, some disparaging. But the majority of attendees spoke positively of the art form, and Nonamey recognized that it was these voices that mattered.

"I reminded myself of that — that, frequently, the volume that I have allowed to be loudest in my experience is from the trans, queer voice," he said.

And when negative feedback is directed toward him about his personhood, or queer and gender themes in his art, he doesn't pay such comments any mind.

"I've encountered a number of transphobic individuals, homophobic individuals that simply want to tell me that I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing and that it's offensive. I can receive that as information, but I don't let myself absorb it," said Nonamey.

Portland's ongoing lure
Having lived in Portland for a few years now, Nonamey has certain go-to spots, such as Doe Donuts + Ice Cream for their vegan treats and PDXCHANGE, a creative space where local artists can sell small pieces of work.

Favorite places aside, Portland continues to pose as "mysterious" to Nonamey in that he wants to continue to learn more about it.

"There's still something about this city — it has an underbelly that's very exciting to me, that I'd like to explore," he said.

This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.




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