Vacant Assembly launches their first Art Adjacent talk series with artists; Makayla Dass, Nisa Isabel Maria Yam Chan Lopez Richy and Morgan Nanai Brown.
Morgan Nanai Brown
Morgan (she/her), Is a Samoan and Māori, Brisbane based Visual Artist born in New Zealand.
Morgan is an emerging visual artist, currently undertaking a Bachelor of Visual Art, also at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Her work is concerned with the themes of Identity, Pacific Islander and Indigenous culture, with an aim to create an artistic representation of self-discovery.
Within Morgan's work she explores the relationship between western culture and ethnic culture, essentially how they co-exist within us. This tension is not only in culture, but also deeply personal and intimate to self. Her art is a space where she unpacks these decisions, to visually interoperate with experience and process the quiet negotiations between cultural pride and societal pressure.
Morgan critiques active present-day colonialism. Her aim is to unveil a more discrete colonial power that we unknowingly participate in and how art can create a form of resistance. In counteract to modern Western structures, she aims to provide a platform for discussions surrounding her culture's pre-colonial traditions. The use and creation of art is heavily imbedded into her lively hood; there is an essence in every sense of her identity.
Makayla Dass
Makayla Dass (she/her) is a proud Kuku Yalanji and Guugu Yimithirr woman, currently living on unceded land in Magandjin (Brisbane). She is an emerging artist and writer, undertaking a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Through her research and creative practice, Makayla explores philosophical conceptions of wealth, reimagined beyond the structures of capitalism, and instead highlighting the intricacies of relationality.
Raised off-Country in Gurambilbarra (Townsville) on Bindal and Wulgurukaba Country, her connection to culture has been nurtured through both community and lived experience. Since a young age, she has been involved in political activism, driven by a deep commitment to understanding how we can create tangible change and foster cultural coexistence while reaffirming sovereignty.
As she continues to grow her presence in the art world, Makayla also contributes through her roles as Administration Officer with the renowned Aboriginal artist collective proppaNOW, and as a Project Officer with Aboriginal Art Co.
Nisa Isabel Maria Yam Chan Lopez Richy
Nisa (she/her) is an artisan, researcher and arts worker, working and living in so-called ‘Australia’, on unceded Aboriginal lands. Coming from a family of mixed heritage with a long history of both forced and chosen migration, she is Crimean Tatar, Basque and Southern European on her mother's side, and Originaria Yucateca, Maya, Mexican on her father's side.
In 2024 she co-founded Cempoaxochitl Arts Collective, a Magandjin based Mexican artists collective. She is also a collaborator in ‘Heart Gravity’, an ongoing BIPOC and Queer photography project.
Nisa has an academic background Indigenous studies, art history, anthropology and politics. Drawing on both her cultural and academic backgrounds, Nisa’s research and creative practice looks at intercultural collaboration, writing and researching beyond binary thinking, and anti-oppressive methodologies in looking at and creating art.