Meet the Artist – Didier Cremieux

Didier Cremieux

Didier Cremieux is a French/American artist and illustrator.  Born and raised in Clermont l'Herault in southern France, he shipped himself to the USA in 1977, and is currently a resident of New York City. 

He majored in literature and art history at the Université Paul Valery in Montpellier, and, upon his arrival in the US, furthered his studies in photography in Oklahoma City and etching and lithography at Antioch college in Ohio, along with apprenticeships and jobs in printmaking and graphic design.  He experimented with various printing techniques from silk screening to etching and Xerox or letterpress printing.  His artwork has appeared in alternative spaces throughout the 80s and 90s - Show and Tell Gallery, Altarpiece, Bibliomancy and The Offensive in San Francisco, and group shows in Montpellier, France and Wuppertal, Germany.  

His love of the printed media has always been a driving force in his expression, and, in the 80's it quite naturally brought him to experimenting with computer graphics, often resulting in mixed media digital/organic collages.  In the 90's his computer graphics experiences took him into the world of interactivity as he started combining sounds with images as promotional material for the music industry.  His interactive music mixers were among the first 'musical toys' found on the internet, and his work with the band Deep Forest earned him many awards.  Since then, he has balanced his life between art and music, with major inspiration coming mostly from the liner notes of jazz and psychedelic record covers, rather than from art or literature.

Through sampling in music or collage in graphics, his expression always paid tribute to musicians and artists who influenced his life and philosophy, and celebrated the artists who shaped his generation, -- from the early days in France with free jazz and West Coast psychedelia, through California and its local punk scene, to New York and its mashed up musical melting pot.

The upcoming exhibition at the Orphic Gallery, The Postal Mix Tapes of Didier Cremieux, is an on-going project celebrating music, its different genres and history.  Hand-made stamp sheets and posters read as his ultimate visual mix tape, his personal musical family tree.

The Postal Mix Tapes opens with an artist’s reception on Saturday, October 11th from 5 to 8 pm at the Orphic Gallery in Roxbury. 

Please join Didier Cremieux at the reception, take a look around and listen to his pictures.

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