Faile
We called ourselves A LIFE. We started messing with the letters and we got Faile and we kind of liked the idea of ‘fail to succeed, look past your failures and you can find a life.’ - Patrick Miller, Faile
Faile is a Brooklyn-based art collaboration between Patrick Miller and Patrick McNeil. McNeill was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1975. Miller was born in Minneapolis in 1976. The two met in high school in Arizona, when they were both fourteen. Their friendship developed because each had a passion for art and were in the same art classes throughout high school.
After high school McNeill went to England, where he became interested in the graffiti being done there, and then studied graphic design in New York. Miller studied graphic design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The two friends kept in touch and wound up traveling to England together, where they did street art and, eventually, combined their talents and formed Faile. Faile began as a trio, which included Japanese street artist Aiko Nakagawa, a.k.a. Lady Aiko. She worked with Faile until 2006, and left to continue her own successful career.
Their artwork has been shown in galleries and museums, like the Tate Modern in 2008 and the Brooklyn Museum in 2015. In 2013 FAILE was commissioned by the New York City Ballet to create an installation for the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
References:
Jaime Rojo and Steven Harrington. The Generational Shift in Street Art Culture. The Huffington Post. Updated from Brooklyn Street Art: December 6, 2017.
Street Art News. Artist Interview: Faile. December 31, 2020.