How I Became A Person, by Page Person

In celebration of Trans Awareness Week, Made in L.A. artist Page Person presents a sprawling, multi-sensory performance confronting anti-drag and anti-trans hysteria with humor, storytelling, and audience participation. 

Page Person’s recent art practice encompasses drawing, painting, sculpture, storytelling, music, and performance. After Person came out as trans, she was alienated from the art world spaces in which she had shown for ten years. In 2017 she started doing drag and assumed the name Page Person, performing at Los Angeles drag nights and events. Her “ongoing project is based on the deceptively simple statement I AM A PERSON,” as she explains in her artist’s statement. Insisting on her own humanity, the artist frequently asserts the name “PERSON” in all caps as a bold compositional element in both paintings and costumes.

When Person returned to making works on canvas in 2020, she realized that making paintings and gowns felt interchangeable. As she has continued to work across mediums, the boundaries between genres have continued to dissolve. Person’s practice demonstrates her mission to make drag in art spaces and art in drag spaces.