I know, I know, it’s late, but you’ve still got two days to catch Faile at London’s Lazarides Gallery in Greek Street, Soho, London. This is probably one of the most stunning shows this year as far as the new breed of modern iconic art goes, if you haven’t heard of Faile, where were, are and will you be?

The Faile Collective consists of two Arizonian high school friends, Patrick McNeil and Patrick Mille, and who were soon to part as each attended art schools at different ends of the States, one attending New York and the other Minneapolis. Other members in the past have included Aiko Nakagawa, a graphic motion student McNeil met in New York whilst exhibiting in a club, and later on Bast, who has been rather neglected in more recent times, perhaps due to his ‘rough’ aesthetic. After finding that their original name A-Life was shared by a New York store/ gallery on the East Side, they quickly renamed themselves Faile. finding inspiration after spending a night in the cells for fly-posting, the original trio rearranged their original name to reflect their emotional state at the time.

At first glance Faile’s work seems to be an ad hoc juxtaposition of comic books, pulp fiction novels and ads from local newspapers and phone directories. Following a more thorough examination it is clear that more brooding influences lie beneath the faux-kitsch surface of pop culture imagery, notably concurrent themes of dualism and collaboration, alongside a  transference of ‘the street’ as exhibition space to contextual medium for an arbitrage of texture, line and colour. Natural decay, the tattered effects of the elements and its populous, and the constituency of something more temporal come into play.

The truth is there’s too much to say about Faile, their history ,their vast body of work, they’ve followed in Shepard Fairey’s footsteps by wheat pasting their art from city to city across the world. They have moved on from original stencil works to a broad remit of different techniques and mediums, including actually pasting images over each other in traditional oversized giant collages, and regularly sell prints and original pieces via their online store. I’ve included a series of useful links for all those who’d like to explore the world of Faile further, and if you don’t get a chance to catch the exhibition, there are even items for auction on Ebay of all places, but do watch out, some are limited edition prints, other rarities are original unique works (very unlikely on Ebay though), and some that will no doubt be fakes.

The Faile Store - yes it’s a dot net, you’d think that someone would have the heart to give them the Faile.com domain or at least sell it to them cheap, instead it’s a domain landing page filled with graffiti removal links, how drole.

Faile Forums - an unofficial yet highly popular forum to meet and greet other Faile addicts. Buy, sell, chat, and post your own photos of Faile’s work from around the world.

Faile Wiki

Faile London @ Art of the State - an excellent page of Faile paste-ups and stencil work in and around London - whilst you’re at it take a look at the rest of the site, it’s well worth a visit.

The Flickr Faile Group and Faile Images at Flickr

For those with less monetary clout, i.e you can’t afford the tenner entrance fee, take a look at Faile’s latest exhibition in Soho.

Related posts

• Obey in the U.K (2)
• Art Has An Enemy (9)
• Warholes by Paul Baines (2)
• Turn, Turn, Turn (0)
• Old School’s Out, Forever (0)

This post is tagged Aiko Nakagawa, art schools, arts, Bast, dualism, exhibition, exhibition space, Faile, Faile Collective, greek street, juxtaposition, lazarides gallery, London, New York Graffiti, NY, Patrick McNeil, Patrick Mille, pop culture imagery, pulp fiction novels, Shepard Fairey, Soho, soho london