Blake Nelson Boyd

Blake created Andy Clone to continue Warhol into the 21st century.

Billy Name has claimed that Andy Clone was cloned from one of Andy's wig hairs.

Blake Nelson Boyd, commonly known as Blake Boyd, (born October 1, 1970) is an American film actor, comedian, and visual artist who lives and works in New Orleans and London.

Boyd began painting professionally in 1987 with oils and acrylics on canvas.

Boyd had to drop out of Memphis College of Art in 1989 for financial reasons and continued his apprenticeship until 2002.

At twenty-one Boyd met his first significant mentor, New York artist Andres Serrano, who, knowing Boyd's appreciation of Andy Warhol, introduced him to Taylor Mead.

This friendship expanded to include other members of the Warhol Factory, including Billy Name, Ultra Violet, Allen Midgette, Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, and Robert Heide.

In the summer of his sixteenth year Boyd took the money from his garage sale and flew to Los Angeles to be discovered for film.

There he met, and photographed, another of his heroes, Johnny Carson.

This was the first of Boyd's celebrity portraits but, unfortunately, not the beginning of his film career as he intended.

In recent years Hollywood has come to Louisiana and Boyd has appeared in the short-lived TV series K-Ville, the acclaimed Treme, and the feature films Deja Vu, Tribute and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (in which he is credited as Mr. Afraid of the Ground Man).

Boyd is currently in talks with an established actor/writer/comedian about a TV series based upon Blake's childhood, growing up in Slidell, Louisiana.

Boyd was mentored by Andres Serrano and Andy Warhol Factory manager Billy Name in the 1990s.

Boyd's visual art takes many different forms of expression including painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, video and installation.

Boyd was born and raised in Slidell, Louisiana, a small town not far from New Orleans.

His mother is an elementary school teacher, who left the family when Boyd was eleven.

His father is the owner of a construction company and left Blake to his own devices from his teenage years onward.

At the age of sixteen Boyd started to paint, with the ambition of showing professionally, and began his apprenticeship with an established local artist.

In the mid-1990s, Boyd custom made a rabbit head that he wore to events in New Orleans and New York, dressed as a rabbit, inspired by "The Space Bunny", a story he wrote in 1978.

In the late 1990s Boyd created the character Andy Clone, as whom he performed, dressed as Andy Warhol, in New Orleans, New York City, and Pittsburgh.

The character referenced Andy Warhol creating a robot of himself.

Following Warhol's death, The Warhol Foundation did not permit the robot to make appearances feeling that it was too morbid.

The first opera, Fidelio, began in 2001, and is a visual diary of Boyd's travels, from his visits with celebrities from Andy Warhol's Factory in New York City, to his escapades in New York and London nightclubs.

The second opera, Romantika, is inspired by and dedicated to a hometown love interest, whom Boyd credits with mending his broken heart.

Each opera will consist of a series of eleven separate exhibitions, totaling twenty-two exhibitions in all.

In May 2005 Boyd took out a two-page advertisement in Art in America, a personal letter to Matthew Marks.

Some critics appreciated it as art, while others missed the point and did not pick up on Boyd's background of performance and comedic commentary.

Since 2005 Boyd has exhibited smaller installations, Chamber Music, whose themes complement and support the opera.

In the summer of 2011, no longer with a specific gallery, Boyd conceived and produced Prospect 1.75, an homage/parody of Prospect New Orleans.

This took place over a five-month period at four locations throughout New Orleans.

Actor Jennifer Coolidge was the main curator and invited guest curators for some of the venues.

The curators selected retrospective works from Boyd's career along with new pieces complementing the themes.

Coolidge personally curated the opening show at Gallery Bienvenu, "My Pinocchio Syndrome for Abigail . . . Ten Years Later. This Ain't Disney Jeff."

Her curatorial statement was, "I really don't get this stuff."

For the second exhibition, at the Coup d'Oeil Gallery Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn curated "The Batman Years.".

Coolidge was invited to present Blake Boyd's artwork for the rock and roll band Supagroup at the closing party for White Linen Night.

Prospect 1.75 closed with the opening of the exhibition "Super Man Burger King" at Nadine Blake's French Quarter location, October 28.

Blake Boyd's work employs ancient and contemporary techniques, drawing upon traditional and modern icons.

His art takes many forms, including paintings in clay, sculpture, photobooth photography, video, and site-specific installation.

Collectively, all of these are components of a twenty-year conceptual artwork that Boyd views as two "visual" operas.