niko wearden is a British Performance Artist and cultural worker who lives in Helsinki now. niko tends to their body in water, lying on the floor, ecological grief and waiting with his kin. he doesn’t want to wait alone anymore. niko is a recent graduate of Live Art and Performance Studies (LAPS) at the Theatre Academy, Helsinki, where both his written and artistic thesis speculated on performance studies as meteorology, or, knowing the weather otherwise.
niko’s work has been shown internationally including at the Polish Sculpture Centre, Muu Gallery, Helsinki, the Royal Academy, London, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Vantaa Arts Museum Artsi. In 2024 Niko received a British Council x Unlimited microaward to build connections between British and international artists. They worked on a project with Brazilian artist and transdisciplinary researcher jialu pombo exploring sensory relationships to water through the work on Lygia Clark. niko’s art has been featured in Love Magazine, Artefact Magazine, BBC Newsbeat and on BBC Edinburgh Fringe Nights. They have written texts for publications including Suomen Queer-tutkimus Seuran (SQS), NO NIIN magazine and The Supreme Deluxe Essential Monster Chetwynd Handbook (Edition Patrick Frey). In summer 2025 they spent three months in residency on the lighthouse island, Skomvær, Norwegian side of Sápmi. Other residencies include the Finnish BioArt Society’s Field_Notes residency in Gilbbesjávri/ Kilpisjärvi on the Finnish side of Sápmi and an UrbanApa Miniresidency at Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki together with their working group odotushuone.
As part of their practice niko is also dreaming of working as an ‘access dramaturg’* or ‘access curator’; integrating access into every stage of curatorial and/ or dramaturgical practice; as eg. aesthetics, method and ethical commitment.
*Access dramaturgy is a term coined by American access worker and dramaturg Alison Kopit.