Gurevich Fine Art is proud to present the Canadian premiere exhibition of Sixteen Million Colours, a collection of digital art by music icon Buffy Sainte-Marie. The exhibit is a presentation illuminating the surprising beauty of digital images and Sainte-Marie’s experience as one of the first artists to create within the computerized realm.
The world premiere opens to the public on Friday, October 12, 2012 at Gurevich Fine Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
For over four decades, Academy-Award winner Sainte-Marie has – and continues to - channel her infinite musical and artistic creativity as a musician, composer, social activist and educator. The digital work in Sixteen Million Colours echoes Sainte-Marie’s love of artistic experimentation through art that is multilayered both technically and conceptually. She explains, “One thing all these works have in common, they all combine layers of different realities as well as techniques – photographic, scanned objects, digital painting, painting and layers of ideas and emotions.” The pieces in this collection explore Sainte-Marie’s development as a digital artist as well as her identity as an Aboriginal artist.
Sainte-Marie has been creating digital art since 1984. Pushed to develop a virtual studio due to the constraints of her busy touring schedule, she began to experiment using a tiny 128K computer and the early graphic design program, MacPaint, to create visual art. “These paintings unintentionally represent a history of digital art programs including MacPaint, SuperPaint, PixelPaint and Photoshop,” says Sainte-Marie. Almost three decades later, these works reflect the visionary spirit of Sainte-Marie – a pioneer of digital art-making.
The work in Sixteen Million Colours is an unexpected display of images at once traditional and futuristic, serious and psychedelic.
About Sixteen Million Colours
The presentation of Sixteen Million Colours is the first comprehensive exhibition of Sainte-Marie’s digital work.
Sixteen Million Colours opens Friday, October 12 with a public reception at 7:00PM.