Odette Stout

Multimedia Artist and Drag Performer

2025 3Arts Awards

Visual Arts

Odette Stout (they/them) is an artist and drag performer whose multimedia club performances and experimental handmade silicone costumes are a staple in Chicago underground nightlife. They become and cast collaborators as otherworldly living artworks called on to tell stories from spaces where self-creation is a survival art practice. Their recent work frames the manifestation of individual personas, specifically trans becoming, as a constructive community project and explores how technology mediates this identity formulation. This practice is driven by three interrelated research explorations: creating new experiences of self-perception for performers and audiences; innovating technological approaches to embedding information gesturally on the body; and exploring how artists can impact the development of the technologies we fuse with, using and misusing them with awareness.

Stout runs Mall Kiosk at the End of the World, an ongoing studio library of their costumes that is open to local performers. Exhibitions include The Sculpture Center, Currents New Media, Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Ars Electronica, and the Kinsey Institute. They have organized intermedia workshops at MOCA Cleveland, The Rock Hall of Fame, and Ps1 Close House. Partners in support of them include, Chicago DCASE, 3Arts, Chicago Artists Coalition, ACRE and Southern Graphics Council International. Stout’s writing has been published in WUSSY magazine and featured at Poetry Foundation. They teach digital media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Odette Stout's Website

A queer non-binary performer stands against a wooden wall. They are lit by the light of a phone that they are holding above their head. They have purple hair and are shirtless, wearing red electrical wire and dangling jewelry.

Featured Artworks

Still of the 2-channel video installation. One video has a model figure wearing an abstract outfit the other is distorted on the ground.

The Dream Continues, 2024 Still of the 2-channel video installation at The Sculpture Center

The Dream Continues, 2024 Still of the collection installed at The Sculpture Center

Still from a performance where a non binary performer is getting tattooed on their stomach. They are wearing a red outside and looking straight into the camera while the other performer tattoos their stomach.

Siren, 2023-2025 Still from AR camera from a performance of Siren at Vox Populi

Still from a performance. A non-binary performer stands in front of a wall that is being projected on. They are wearing a red swim cap, red gloves and the words Beside your butter and wine are projected on them.

Siren, 2023-2025 Still from AR camera from a performance of Siren at Vox Populi

Two performers covered in white paint stand at Art EXPO. They are posed back to back and wearing multi-colored wrap like garments.

Untitled action at Art EXPO, 2025 Odette pictured with Ále Campos Image by Masalah Baskin and Sophia Savin

A non-binary performer is standing in an audience. They are wearing a white button down school girl like outfit and are wrapped in red electrical chord.

Constant Innovation at Poetry Foundation, 2025 Part of "Powertripping" at Poetry Foundation Image by Ricardo Adame

A still from a performance. A non-binary performer stands in a crowd posting during a performance.

2024 Part of "All the Bodies" at Basilica Hudson. Thanks to Lil Debs Oasis Image by T. Roeschlein

Constant Innovation, 2025 Image by Ricardo Adame Part of "Powertripping" at Poetry Foundation

A non-binary performer is standing in an audience. They are wearing a white button down school girl like outfit. They hold a phone up to their face so the light catches it as they post with one hand on their cheek. They have long blonde hair.

Constant Innovation, 2025 Part of "Body of Noise" at Elastic Arts Image by Ruby Que

The Dream Continues, 2024 Odette pictured with Joliee Blak. Thanks to The Sculpture Center Image by Ruby Que