Edie Fake (born 1980) is an American artist, illustrator, author, and

transgender activist The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health c ...

. Fake is known for their comics/zines,

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

and ink paintings, and murals. Fake has an award winning comic-zine series about Gaylord Phoenix, a bird-like man that travels to different environments and has various lovers. He is currently based in

Joshua Tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' (also known as the Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca) is a plant species belonging to the genus '' Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names. This monocotyledonous tre ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, after previously residing in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Early life and education

Fake was born in 1980 and raised in Evanston,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. In 2002, he received a B.F.A. degree in Film, Animation and Video (FAV) from

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

(RISD). After graduating from RISD, Fake worked as a negative cutter for approximately 6 years, and started working in comics, collage and drawing, and translating their animation into two dimensional work because it was more accessible. In 2015, Fake had been enrolled at Roski School of Art at

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

(USC) and was one of the seven artists (nicknamed the "USC7") that dropped out of the school in protest of the mistreatment by the administration.

Work

Fakes work uses visual abstraction in their work as an exploration of identity in the transgender and queer experience. The Gaylord Phoenix short comics series started in 2002. In the illustrated book, ''Gaylord Phoenix'' (2010) there is expression of desire and transformation happening to a bird-like man in a dream-like, fantasy environment. In the illustrated book, ''Memory Palaces'' (2014), Fake reimagines the facades of historical queer spaces in Chicago in abstract, fantasy-like paintings of architecture, which are used as a metaphor for the transgender body. Both with architecture and the human body, these exist as structures and present decoration and protective features, and both of these are vulnerability due to shifts in U.S. politics and social change. Additionally in the exhibition of the same name, ''Memory Palaces'' (2013)'','' at Thomas Robertello Gallery in Chicago, there were a series of drawings titled "Gateway", where Fake pays tribute the death of his five artist friends, Mark Aguhar, Nick Djandji, Dara Greenwald, Flo McGarrell, and Dylan Williams. Fake won the 2011

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...

for "Outstanding Graphic Novel" for Gaylord Phoenix. In 2019, Fake was one of the guests of honors at MoCCA Festival by the Society of Illustrators.

Exhibitions

This is a list of select exhibitions of Edie Fake's work, separated by the type of exhibition and listed by year of exhibition.

Solo exhibitions

* 2019–2020 – ''Affordable Housing for Trans Elders'', solo art wall/mural,

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and film archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director ...

(BAMPFA), Berkeley, California * 2019–2020 – ''Edie Fake: Labyrinth'', Drawing Center, New York City, New York * 2018 – ''Edie Fake: Structure Shifts'', Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York * 2016 – ''Edie Fake'', Marlborough Chelsea, New York City, New York * 2013 – ''Memory Palaces'', solo exhibition, Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

Group exhibitions

* 2019 – ''Queer Forms,'' Katherine E. Nash Gallery,

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, Minneapolis, Minnesota * 2019 – ''Queer Abstraction'',

Des Moines Art Center The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa. History The Art Center traces its roots to 1916, when the Des Moines A ...

Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

, Iowa * 2019 – ''Queer California: Untold Stories'',

Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

(OMCA), Oakland, California * 2018 – ''Surface/Depth: The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro'',

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...

(MAD), New York City, New York * 2018 – ''Declaration'', Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA),

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

(VCU),

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, Virginia * 2017 – ''A Dazzling Decade: Works Acquired Over the Past 10 Years'', Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (NMOCA), Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas * 2016 – ''Tomorrow Never Happens'', Samek Gallery,

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

, Lewisburg,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Publications

* * *

References

External links

* Article
Cities of the Future, Their Color
by Renee Gladman and Edie Fake (Summer 2018) in the '' Paris Review'' *Video
Rad Queers - Edie Fake
(2013) on

vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

*Podcast
Episode 346: Edie Fake
(2015) on RiYL (Recommended If You Like),

Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fake, Edie 1980 births Living people Rhode Island School of Design alumni Artists from Evanston, Illinois People from Joshua Tree, California American queer artists Artists from Chicago American LGBTQ rights activists American transgender artists LGBTQ comics creators LGBTQ people from Illinois American transgender men