Be Oakley
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Be Oakley (B. 1991) is an artist, writer, and publisher based in the homeland of the Lenape (Lenapehoking), or Ridgewood/Queens, NY. In 2015 they founded GenderFail, a publishing outlet that seeks to instigate works that expand queer subjectivity by looking at queerness as an identity that challenges capitalist, racist, ableist, zionist, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, misogynistic, and anti-environmental ideologies. GenderFail’s core model is not not-for-profit but profit-for-survival or profit-to-continue-our-work-without-other-means-of-capital and, most importantly, to make money for others they publish, to create profit-for-labor.
With GenderFail, Oakley has published over 120 editions, including works by A.L. Steiner, Abigail Lucien, Paul Soulellis, Lex Brown, Coco Klockner, Morgan Bassichis, Eileen Myles, Pamela Sneed, Viva Ruiz, E. Jane, and many, many more. GenderFail publications can be found in the Library, Special, and Museum collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum Library, and over 95 others.
Oakley has exhibited in programs and exhibitions at MoMA PS1 (Past and Future Fictions, 2018), The International Center of Photography (Queering the Collection, 2018), Center for Book Arts (Imperfect Archiving, Archiving as Practice 2021), Woman Studio Workshop (Seize Control of the FDA 2022), Sprengel Museum Hannover (The Shelf- Artistic Publishing Platform), Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (An Incessant Unknowability: An Archive of Protest Inspired Typography and It’s Open Source Uses 2024-25). Oakley has been an Artist in Residence with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (October 5, 2024- March 02, 25), Acre Residency (August 2022), and Wendy’s Subway (October 1, 2018 – December 31, 2018). In 2022, Oakley was awarded a 3-year $30,000 grant through the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for their ongoing work with GenderFail. Oakley is currently a NEW INC Y11 member in Cooperative Studies with the New Museum.
Online:
Hyperallergic. June 12, 2024. Maya Pontone. Find Your Dream Zine at This Sprawling Manhattan Fair
Hyperallergic, May 30, 2023. Lakshmi Rivera, Five Incanting Art Bookstores in NYC
Toronto Life, October 3, 2022, Caroline Aksich and Sarah Kidd, Inside Art Metropole’s new College Street space
It’s Nice That July 11, 2022, Olivia Hingley, “Design can be a powerful tool for creating radical content”: Genderfail builds typefaces from hand-drawn protest posters.
The Met. July 13, 2022. Melissa Raymond. Celebrating International Zine Month at Watson Library
It’s Nice That on June 15, 2022, Olivia Hingley, Explores queer design history through Days of Rage, a new Online Exhibition Documenting LGBTQIA+ activist posters.
Fifth State #410 Fall 2021, Rich Dana (Ricardo Feral), In the World of Digital, Print Raises A Challenge
Eye on Design, November 4th, 2021, Somnath Bhatt Three Publishers Get Real About Independent Publishing: What does it take to make indie publishing work?
Echo Gone Wrong, August 2021, Photo reportage from the exhibition "Excess and Refusal' ay EKKM
Missy Magazine, Decolonising design
Le Monde, June 2021,Par Isabelle Mayault: Typographes, graphistes, artistes… Ces « hacktivistes » qui inventent une langue sans féminin ni masculin
LAMPOON, January 2021, Elena Caslini: Ulises, Philadelphia. Ideas for a democratization of curatorial practice
Brooklyn Rail, March 2020, Megan N. Liberty: Printed Matter
Hyperallergic, January 2020, Hakim Bishara: Brooklyn’s A.I.R Gallery to Launch Its First Feminist and Queer Art Book Fair
OutTV, December 2019, Josh Signler: OUTTV's 19 BEST READS OF 2019
Recess Art, November 2019. Tavia Nyong'o: JUST OUT OF HAND, JUST OUT OF REACH
Igloo, October 2019: Lay Me Down Across the Lines - a new exhibition at Kunsthalle Bega
C& Contemporary And, November 2019, Mia Harrison: lay me down across the lines Invisible Connections of Feminism
Sixty Inches From Center, November 2019, Tamara Becerra Valdez: Inga: Spacemaking Through and Around Books
Printed Matter, September 2019, Loraine Furter: Copy This Table
Art In America, August 2019, Kerry Doran: Identity Binge: How Lex Brown Makes Television
The Cornell Daily Sun, March 2019, Isabel Ling: LING | The Dangers of Binaries
Popdust, June 2019 Sara Nuta: Countering the Whitewashing of Pride: NYC Honors Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera
Williamsrecord, February 2019, Wilson Lam: “Queer Zines” workshop celebrates queer creativity, love in all forms
Eye on Design, January 2019, Shea Fitzpatrick: The Queer Zine Library in Hong Kong That’s Finding a Global Community
Eye on Design, January 2019, Meg Miller: What Does “Queering Design Education” Actually Look Like in Practice?
Hyperallergic, September 2018, Deena ElGenaidi: A Preview of Printed Matter’s Annual NY Art Book Fair, Featuring 73 First-Time Exhibitors
The Commonwealth Times, January 2018, Georgia Geen : Panel displays perspectives on Richmond publishing projects
Sixty Inches From Center, November 2017, Annette LePique: El Sol Sale Para Todxs: A Conversation with Galia Basail
The Daily Beast, September 2017, Lyne Lucien: Gorgeous LGBTQ Photography at the NY Art Book Fair
Media Milwaukee, March 2016, Mike Holloway: The World of Zines
Wikipedia: GenderFail
In Print
The Baffler No.56 The Counterpublic Option, March 2021, Say Their Name
C Magazine: Issue 147, October 2020, Cason Sharpe: Consciousness: Lex Brown
Conde Nest Traveler, April 2020, CNT Editors: New York, Our Favorite New Yorkers on the Best Things in All Five Boroughs
Vogue Italia January 2020, Pg. 54, Laura Taccari: Failure E Un Po' Rinascere
Eye on Design: Issue 3, Pg.62-63, Nathan Ma: History Made in The