Portfolio Works
About the Artist
Nepsilon (Neps) Piercey is a queer, nonbinary interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in the wintery state of Minnesota in the USA, they spent much of their early life with illustrated fairy tale books and fantasy stories. By the time they were in their teens, anime and manga began to spur on their fascinations with fiction. The fantastical tales inspired them to create fantastical worlds in their works, while also trying to touch the hearts of others. Their nonbinary and queer identity often inform their work, to blend gender and sex together often through themes of transformation. While working with digital mediums with textured line work and limited color pallets, their traditional work is with graphite drawings and mixing the soft blending of gouache paints with the sharp colors of acrylic paint and ink. Their comic work tends to take on a story-like quality and deals with hard topics like neurodivergency, C-PTSD, and social commentary. Their fiction writing is exact, with flourish and flowers to fluff their meaning, often writing about Queerness, Fantasy, and Identity. They earned the Comic Art scholarship at MCAD in 2025. Neps has curated an exhibition called Off the Shelves: Non-Traditional Comics in 2024 and Habits of Seeing in 2025, and won Juror’s Choice in Made at Mcad: All-Student Juried Exhibition in 2025, along with other exhibitions they have been in since 2022.They graduated from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Majoring in Comic Arts and Minoring in Creative Writing and Curation.
Awards and Merit
EXHIBITIONS
Love in the Time of Resistance
MCAD, Minneapolis MN, February 2026
Co-Prosperity, Chicago IL, April - May 2026Art for All: Art Glow
Northrup King Building, Minneapolis MN, December 4th - December 20th, 2025Habits of Seeing (Curator)
Wesley Andrews, Minneapolis MN
Co-Curators: Ellie Needham, Paulina Solkahava, November 2025Shape of Absence, Memories and Metamorphosis
Jackson Flats, Minneapolis MN, November 2025Made at Mcad
Juror’s Choice Award Recipient
Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN, 2025Off the Shelf: Non-Traditional Comics
(Curator)
Minneapolis College of Art and Design Library, Minneapolis, MN, 2024Breaking Ground
Eagan Art House, Eagan, MN, 2024Deep Listening
Eagan Art House, Eagan, MN, 2024MCAD Zine Fest
Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN, 2023-2025 (Admin in 2024/2025)No Strings on Me
Northside Artspace Lofts Main Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, 2023Material and Media Exploration
Homewood Studio, Minneapolis, MN, 2023PUBLICATIONS
MCAD Comics Club 2025 Anthology: What Goes Bump in the Night
Editor and OrganizerMCAD OC Club Zine
No.1 & No. 2, 2023-2024MCAD Furry Zine: Horror
No. 2, 2024MCAD Health and Wellness Zine
No. 1, 2023AWARDS
MCAD Portfolio Scholarship Award 2022-2026
Fourth place in Phantomacy 1st Art contest
MCAD Merit Comic Art Scholarship 2025Other Work
Backgrounds for Catharsis by Roman Schroeder
Please Email Neps at [email protected] for any questions
Illustration
After the World Ends Visual Development
After The World Ends is a post apocalypse story about two young adults navigating a world that no longer has the same convinces as before and trying to find joy in everyday life. Vendy and Kelly-dog are companions that help ground them and keep joy in their hearts.
Clothing Line Development
Illustrations
Comics
The Seed in the Swamp
2025
The Seed in The Swamp is a 27 page body horror fairytale wrapped in an eerie black and white, traditionally inked package. This story tackles the effects of teen pregnancy and generational abuse through the use of metaphor and illustration.The story follows the characters Dmitar, the Travelearn, and Misa the Elk-fox, a small god of safety, as they traverse a swamp in a storm. When they encounter a hut, they meet a hag and her young daughter, the latter of who is chained to the former. Can Dmitar and Misa survive the night in the canabalistic hag’s home? Or will Dmitar’s appetite for story put them in danger?
The Price of Stars
2022
The Price of Stars is a 12 page short story following a villainess and her realization upon getting the ultimate weapon, that could fulfill her want to destroy the world, she isn’t sure that is truly the wish deep in her heart. When confronted by the heroes, asking what destroying the world would do, she looks inside herself. Realizing her mistakes, she’s confronted with the horrifying fact she may not be able to be redeemed, and what she must do with that realization. Using experimental, non-linear story telling techniques, the reader goes over the many different parts of her life that lead her to this moment.
Instincts
202310 page comic about a personal reaction to stress and trusting people. Originally on TikTok, it gained 40k views.
Desert Sunset
2023
Awarded Juror's Choice at Made at MCAD exhibition 2025
I Am Fine
2023UV reactive Acrylic paint and Ink Marker on four Canson papers, 14 x 22 inch
You Can Escape
2025Inspired by the salt flats and alien planets and the re-release of old music, this piece was done in gouache.
Experimental Comics
I Am Alive
2024Apart of Off the Shelves: Non-traditional Comics Exhibtions.
Four panel comic done in acrylic paint on canvas, where every canvas was a snapshot of a point in one's life, representing an experience and feeling. The captions are along the outside of the painting, requiring one to view it from multiple angles.
Alien Rodeo Zine
2025Collaboration with Felix OdenExperimental comic in the style of cards, where every card is a panel and connects to the next. 28 cards in total with 14 illustrations.
Nancy Remix
2025A remix taking a Nancy panel and Junji Ito's Uzamaki work and combining the two.
Ishiro Honda Biography
A literal scroll comic, this was printed onto a roll that would be viewed like a film reel. The comic covered much of Ishiro Honda's early life and inspiration, using sepia like color tones to bring a nostalgic feeling.
Curated Exhibtions
Off The Shelves: Non-traditional Comics
Minneapolis College of Art and Design Library
October 2024Off the Shelves was an experimental comic exhibition that asked multiple artists from multiple disciplines what a non-traditional comic would look like to them. A variety of comics came from it, and all were displayed in the library for a month, with references to other books and works that were different from the standard format of comics.
Artwork mounted on a spinning pivot by Felix Oden
Hand embroidered and mixed media comic by Kai Patino
3d Sculpture diorama made by Max Ylvisaker
4 x 5 negative printed on RC photo paper comic by Charlie Kail
Four page comic at large scale by Fyra Waqar
Non-sequitar acrylic painted canvases by Neps Piercey
Habits of Seeing
Wesley Andrews, Minneapolis MN
November - December 2025Curated by Ellie Needham, Neps Piercey, and Paulina SolakhavaHabits of Seeing brings together artists who look closely at the ordinary, drawing attention to the rhythms, spaces, and objects that shape daily life. The exhibition highlights the practice of noticing and appreciating - how presence emerges in overlooked details, quiet gestures, and familiar surroundings. It asks us to pause with what surrounds us every day and to see it with fresh attention. Both the artworks and the venue contribute to this reflective experience. This is not a traditional art space, and many of us pass through it without much thought, yet it encourages us to slow down and engage more attentively with the familiar.Featuring work by:
Katie Weston
Caleb Kerkman
Claire Saloff-Coste
Eloise Koltun