{"id":1000,"date":"2012-03-25T22:56:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-25T22:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/newsite\/?page_id=1000"},"modified":"2023-02-23T15:59:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:59:56","slug":"edie-fake","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/?page_id=1000","title":{"rendered":"Edie Fake"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"
\n<\/a>BIO<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\nEdie Fake<\/span> was born in Chicagoland in 1980. He graduated from the RISD in 2002 and has since clocked time in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Baltimore. He was one of the first recipients of Printed Matter\u2019s Awards for Artists and his collection of comics, Gaylord Phoenix<\/i>, won the 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel. In 2011 he helped found the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) and writes reviews for the blog Book By Its Cover<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nIN PRAISE OF EDIE FAKE<\/span><\/p>\n

Edie Fake’s<\/span> Gaylord Phoenix<\/em> won Outstanding Graphic Novel at this year’s Small Press Expo, and with good reason. There’s nobody who designs comics like Fake designs comics. In Gaylord Phoenix<\/em>, fey pop energy runs into lyrical patterning to create landscapes of volcanoes, fish, alligators, wizards, and severed body parts. Fake is a trans artist, and his graphic novel seamlessly bends gender, melding male quest narrative with female romance to create shimmering fantasies; the visual analog of shoegaze if shoegaze were queerer and more disturbing. From the moir\u00e9-patterned cover to the mysterious stenciled speech bubbles, everything about Gaylord Phoenix<\/em> is ravishing.<\/p>\n

– Noah Berlatsky, the Atlantic<\/span><\/p>\n

n her book Belonging: A Culture of Place<\/em>, bell hooks writes about returning home to rural Kentucky after a long academic career in New York City. In one chapter she discusses porches, the ubiquitous womb-like structures attached to the front and back of any rural home, writing: \u201cA perfect porch is a place where the soul can rest.\u201d In the same way, perfect comics can give openly and sincerely to the reader a place to rest their soul. This is Fake\u2019s most powerful talent and his work\u2019s best quality.<\/p>\n

– LA Review of Books<\/span><\/p>\n

Fake (Gaylord Phoenix<\/em>) presents a striking, occasionally scatological collection of his short comics and drawings from recent years, culled from various zines and underground publications. Employing concise imagery and minimal text, and through symbology and analogy, Fake examines sex and gender with generous amounts of sly, irreverent humor. In the three-part \u201cFoie Gras,\u201d Fake substitutes images of food and food preparation for sexual acts and genitalia, while in \u201cLA Silence,\u201d a trip to a wellness center brings up post\u2013gender-confirmation surgery issues in an unsettling fashion. In the one-page \u201cAnal Sex for Perverts,\u201d a drawing of a shell with a pink opening carries the caption: \u201cBefore I ask say yes.\u201d Other more cryptic pieces require some work from readers to puzzle out, but that\u2019s just part of the fun of Fake\u2019s oeuvre: his comics maintain a playfully naughty mystery. (Appropriately, the book is dedicated in part to \u201cthe Queerdos out there.\u201d) Fake deconstructs gender and human anatomy, sex and desire, then puts them back together again, on his own messy, artful terms. This provocative graphic collection pushes boundaries, and then breaks them open.<\/p>\n

– Publishers Weekly<\/span><\/p>\n

The Evanston, Illinois, native, who now lives in the California High Desert just outside of Joshua Tree, has something of a double career. He is probably best known as a force in the alternative comics scene, with Gaylord Phoenix<\/em>, his 2011 book about a nonbinary humanoid on a journey of self-discovery, winning the Ignatz Award for outstanding graphic novel. At the same time, he is an up-and-comer in the art world whose work not only was included in \u201cSurface\/Depth\u201d but also will be featured in the Des Moines Art Center\u2019s 2019 show \u201cFor Today I Am a Boy: Contemporary Queer Abstraction.\u201d \u2026While Fake does not seem interested in conveying definite meanings in them, he does explore particular themes and motifs, as titles like Center Part or Neutralities might indicate\u2026 \u2026Even in the less direct works, however, Fake\u2019s overall intent seems clear: to conjure a vibrant space where freedom of gender expression can reign.<\/p>\n

– Art in America<\/span><\/p>\n

MORE PRAISE FOR EDIE FAKE<\/span><\/a>\n