International Artist Collective
Based in New York

A pioneering force in the global street art movement, Faile refers to the Brooklyn based artist collective. Faile (an anagram of ‘A Life’) was founded in 1999 by Patrick McNeil from Canada and Patrick Miller from the USA.

The work of Faile evolved from a distinctive street art practice involving wheatpasted and stenciled imagery. Inspired by the urban environment, Faile’s art is the result of synchronizing and juxtaposing disparate visual sources. The duo explains, “our process has always resembled this loose and fast critique on society, whether it be literal or figurative. Our image-making has at times been very methodical and researched, other times it's been experimental and dirty. Street art at its roots is ‘punk.’ It set out to critique and comment on a world it felt outside of.”

Works such as, “Get Acquainted”, “Tear 2”, “Head” and “New York Box” series (all in 2007) reveal the ongoing influence of Pop Art. While the juxtaposition stenciled cartoon characters, iconic figures and graffiti recalls the post war French Nouveau Réalism movement.

Faile have exhibited in major museum shows across the world. In 2006, they participated in the first major international exhibition of contemporary urban art, “Spank the Monkey” held at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle, UK. In 2008, they were the only group to take part in Banksy’s exhibition “Cans” and the Tate Modern’s Street Art. As part of the latter exhibition, they were selected to create a huge installation for the exterior of Tate Modern. They created a monumental 240-square-foot (22 m2) image comprised of collage, found images and signage. In 2010 the duo exhibited a full-scale ruined church in Praça dos Restauradores Square in Lisbon, Portugal, entitled “Temple”.

Faile has received many notable commissions from a range of cultural industries. Examples include, clothing lines for Paper Denim, Comme des Garcons, and Pro-Keds; and a mural project for the Shanghai Sculpture Space.

The multidisciplinary and collaborative activities realised by Faile are prolific. In 2012 they installed a 5m fiberglass and steel sculpture in the heart of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia entitled, “Wolf Within”, 2012. In 2013 they were commissioned by the New York City Ballet Company for their current project, “Les Ballets de Faile”. This two part series sees the creation of two installations produced especially for a series of performances. Faile continue to exhibit internationally in solo and group exhibitions.

Faile have published “Prints + Originals” (Gestalten, 2010): a comprehensive publication that surveys the career of the legendary collective.

From Artnet:
Though they’d med in high school and worked together earlier, in 1999, Patrick McNeil (Canadian, b. 1975) and Patrick Mille (American, b. 1976) officially formed the Brooklyn street art collaboration FAILE. Known for their unique collaging of appropriated materials, including graphic novels, Asian and American culture, and typography, their works call to mind artists like Richard Hamilton and James Rosenquist from the Pop art movement, who blended notions of the machine and inorganic geometry with naturalist elements, to form graphic contrasts. McNeil and Mille likewise in their references to folk history, quilting, mythologies, advertising, illustration, and more, intersect their practice along the lines between street art, popular culture, and fine art. Here referencing the aura of modern London with shimmering black and gold, set against their moniker stenciled, they craft a nostalgic image of comedy, tragedy, and ancient religions amalgamated. A headless, masculine figure wearing a pleated robe on the left, tonally split, holds weaponry pointed towards the letters “Faile,” which drip with paint moving downwards below, while a feminine figure on the right appears to be crying with her hand on her face, like in a Picasso, theatrical Greek, or any Descent from the Cross scene. Ambiguous and mysterious, this aged drama when combined with a pictorial sense of 60s-era gloss, functions as a deepening of contemporary commercial culture, into an infinitely emotional territory.

Influenced by manga, comics, cartoons, propaganda, and advertising, McNeil and Mille also consistently work with paint, wood, and collage, raising questions of process and form. In recent years, they have begun exhibiting their work in galleries and museums, including an important show at the Tate Modern in 2008 and at the Brooklyn Museum in 2015. They have since expanded their ideas into large-scale projects, and in 2015, they were commissioned for a major installation in New York City’s Times Square.