Baker Artist Portfolios

Bao Nguyen (they/them) is a performance artist born in Vietnam and based in Baltimore. With a background in experimental voicework, clown, immersive theater, and movement, their performances tug at the power dynamics and poetics existing between people and places. Incorporating place-based research and site-responsive design, their performances are specific to the characteristics of the performance spaces.

Bao completed their BFA at Maryland Institute College of Art and is pursuing their MFA at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. They have performed in the U.S and abroad in basements, record stores, DIY music venues, natural spaces, colleges, museums, and theaters. Past performances are at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Ewha Woman University, the Parkway Theater, High Zero Festival, the National Aquarium, among other venues. In 2022, they were awarded the Judson-Morrissey Excellence in New Media Award from the New Media Caucus and Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art Fellowship. In 2026, they received the Scholarly Development Fund from UMBC's Dresher Center for the Humanities, in support of their fieldwork research into vacant lots in Southwest Baltimore.