Galerie Simon Blais is very pleased to announce its new collaboration with the artist Mark Stebbins. During this solo exhibition, some fifteen paintings of very small size will be on display. 

From afar, Stebbins' paintings appear to be digital works, but once the viewer approaches, the painter's presence materializes: the pixel becomes the trace and the subject. Using acrylic and very fine tools, the artist paints digital images containing a metaphor of computer failure. Stebbins' work is part of a tradition known as Glitch Art, which dates back to the 1970s. Typical Glitch Art, however, is the result of manipulating codes or data using electronic devices. Stebbins , on the contrary, has painted all of his “errors” by design.

Alternating the infinitely small and the overall image, Stebbins constructs his works as an accumulation of layers inspired by an environment where everything is changeable, temporary and moving. Between gain and loss of information, the artist explores the instability of the recorded message.

Mark Stebbins lives and works in London, Ontario. He holds a visual arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and a law degree from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. He has been the subject of individual exhibitions at the Latcham Gallery in Stouffville, Ontario (2014), the PICI gallery in Seoul, South Korea (2013), and Galerie BAC in Montréal (2012). His many awards include honourable mention at the RBC Canadian Painting Competition (2010), prizes for Best of Exhibition and Best of Drawing at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (2010), the Halifax Mayor’s Award of Distinction in Contemporary Visual Art (2009), and the Emerging Artist of the Year award from Visual Arts Nova Scotia (2009).