Nat Ophelia Walpole (b. 1994) is a visual artist, community researcher, and writer based in Glasgow, Scotland.
Working primarily in paintings, drawings, and poetry –
she explores queer intimacies, subjectivity, and desire through mythopoetic narrative and auto-symbolist image making.
Her work is rooted in a community engaged research practice, and she facilitates reading/knowledge sharing groups within Glasgow and occasionally throughout Scotland.
CV
AVAILABLE WORK
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
PUBLICATIONS
PRESS
natwalpolearts@gmail.com
Instagram Publications
Move From This Place Like Dancers
by Nat Ophelia Walpole
Published 2025Move From This Place Like Dancers is a collection of poems, experimental prose, and personal writings produced between 2024-25.
Initially proposed as a poetry collection which would accompany a series of paintings and drawings exploring trans life through mythopoeia and narrative. The work came to reflect more on the state of transness within Scotland and the UK.
In April 2025 in a court case brought against the Scottish Government by anti-trans activist group For Women Scotland, the UK supreme court released a judgement that the definition of woman under the equalities act was a “biological female”. This was followed by a set of Equalities and Human Rights Commission guidance which interpreted this ruling to segregate trans people from all single sex facilities – which would in effect exclude trans people and particularly trans women from public life.
Following the ruling I experienced a series of hate crimes and harassment from men in my neighbourhood. Including being spat at, having drinks thrown at me, and being followed. I threw myself into activist work protesting the ruling and the EHRC’s interpretation of it, and found myself writing a great deal.
The publication came to loosely follow two transsexual beings; Itshe/Ither and Leda, each representing different aspects of transition, trans womanhood, and trans affect. It reflects on the ways that power and influence moves through the body politic; transmitting from the ritual language of law to the spit from a man’s mouth.
The title is taken from an interview with trans feminist pioneer, sound designer, and academic Sandy Stone in Trans Sisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism #8 carried out by the publication’s creator and lead editor Davina Anne Gabriel.
You can purchase a physical copy of Move From This Place Like Dancers from Category Is Books in Glasgow.
Production supported by the VACMA Award.
IMAGE GALLERY
Unblemished: Stories of Trans Stigma
by Nat Walpole and Valentine Conlan
Published 2022
Unblemished is a graphic novel consisting of five of fictionalised and anonymised stories of trans people’s experiences at the intersection of mental health and anti-trans stigmatisation.
Participants were interviewed by Val Conlan and their stories were anonymised and re-told in a comic format by me. It was important to us that participants had control over how they were represented and how their stories were told, so they were consulted throughout the process and paid for their time.
The publication was produced for SeeMe Scotland and supported through their Anti-Stigma Art Fund, with two editions released during 2022 & 23, distributed at Category Is Books, at Glasgow Zine Festival, and at various NHS sites across Glasgow.
The full comic is available to download below for free and you are welcome to reproduce it for any educational, activist, archival, or other non-commercial purpose.
DOWNLOAD | SEEME SCOTLAND | PRESS
Shifting Masks
by Nat Walpole
Published 2020 for Glasgow GOMA’s Queer Times School Prints Project
Shifting Masks is a one page comic educational exploring trans feminine identity, reflecting on childhood experiences, the complexity of finding your identity, and being queer & trans in public.
Produced as part of Glasgow GOMA’s Queer Times School Prints project, prints produced for this project were intended to be used as educational aids within secondary schools, designed to educate and allow teachers to guide discussions on LGBTQ+ identity and subject matter.
This iteration of Queer Times School Prints was initiated in response to the 10 year anniversary mini-season for the play The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven by acclaimed playwright Jo Clifford. Following a roundtable discussion held at GOMA and following this initiative a brief and call out was put together by the cast of Untitled 2009 and representatives from Queen Jesus Productions UK and Brazil.
The copies of the original prints are included in GOMA’s permanent collection and digital copies were made available to schools across Scotland.
A2 , 4 colour risograph printed, Printed by Knust Press.
If you are interested in using Shifting Masks in an educational, activist, or archival setting please contact me at natwalpolearts@gmail.com
Read more on the GOMA blog.