NICK VAUGHAN & JAKE MARGOLIN (b. 1983, Colorado; b. 1980, California) are Houston-based interdisciplinary artists who explore connections between America’s LGBTQIA+ histories and contemporary queer experiences. A married couple, Nick & Jake’s primary body of work, 50 States, is an ongoing series of installations made in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories from each state. This multi-decade endeavor draws from recent groundbreaking academic work, the artists’ own archival research, and significant time spent learning from and collaborating with local LGBTQIA+ community members. Their practice focuses on remnants of performed actions, processes of decay and entropy, and an expansive understanding of archiving and cartography. They assert queer historical agency and cultural presence while complicating historical narratives through the ambiguities and contradictions that underpin the experiences of their queer forbearers.
Recently, the artists have developed a body of drawings, parallel to 50 States, in which they stencil dry pigment and charcoal powder on paper and then blow it away with the assistance of an air compressor. This act of erasure is also the means of impressing the pigment on the tooth of the paper, resulting in phantom images that are present only through their removal. The body of work is about the vanishing of ghosts, the absence and concurrent permanence of memory and place. In their practice, Nick and Jake engage the LGBTQIA+ community's visceral and intuitive knowledge of their own history, drawing lines between media, gesture, storytelling, and lived experience.
For the last decade the artists’ work has repeatedly returned to shining a light on the under-appreciated history of the south’s queer community and the outsized role it has played in the national movement for queer rights. These projects have included interviewing, partnering with, and commissioning work from a wide range of community elders; organizing panel discussions, long table discussions, and other community building programming around issues facing the Houston LGBTQIA+ community; and collaborating extensively with local queer archives, libraries, and community spaces. A solo exhibition titled Town Meeting 1978–2028, opening on May 16, 2025, will culminate in a symposium on June 7 and 8 at Art League Houston. The show will kickstart a three-year project engaging Houston entities in the fifty-year anniversary of Town Meeting 1, which was pivotal in the organization of queer rights in Houston with national impacts.
Nick & Jake recently founded Rendezvous Center for Art, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports interdisciplinary artwork that explores the rich diversity of queer experiences. They have had solo exhibitions at The Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, Texas; DiverseWorks, Houston, Texas; the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, Oklahoma; the Invisible Dog Art Center, New York City, New York; Art League Houston, Houston, Texas; Aurora Picture Show, Houston, Texas; Devin Borden Gallery, Houston, Texas; and non-traditional community-facing venues including Pride Festivals in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and Houston, Texas; Houston Community College Campuses, Houston Public Library, University of Houston MD Anderson Library, and numerous queer bars. Their work has been included in many group shows including the Contemporary Art Museum Houston’s Stonewall 50 and the Blaffer Art Museum’s Carriers. Their work is included in public and private permanent collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Getty Research Institute, the City of Houston Public Art Collection, The Brooklyn Historical Society, The University of Houston MD Anderson Library Special Collections, The Texas A&M Cushing Library Special Collections, and BlackRock International. Coverage of their work includes a “critic’s pick” review in Artforum (April 2020 for 50 States: Louisiana). Margolin and Vaughan are recipients of a NYFA Fellowship, a Tulsa Artist Fellowship, and grants from the IdeaFund, MAPFund, the Houston Arts Alliance, and Mid America Arts Alliance. Additionally, both artists are members of the theater company The TEAM and frequently collaborate as visual designers with choreographers Faye Driscoll and Yoshiko Chuma. The artists are represented by McClain Gallery; there, they had a solo exhibition in 2023 and will have one again in 2026.