Doug Coupland
Spectra #11
2011
Colour pencils in plexi box
72 x 67.5 in
Provenance: Trepanier Baer Gallery
Created in 2011, Spectra #11 is a monumental sculpture from Douglas Coupland's acclaimed Spectra series. Standing six feet tall, this impressive work transforms thousands of mass-produced colored pencils into a glowing, architectural color field encased in a sleek Plexiglas box. By taking a ubiquitous, humble tool of everyday creativity and serializing it into an intricate chromatic grid, Coupland creates a compelling dialogue between Pop art, Minimalism, and contemporary optical design.
In the Spectra series, Coupland explores how color functions as language, emotion, and visual data in 21st-century culture. The tightly arranged pencils create subtle tonal gradations and linear rhythms, referencing traditional landscape painting, digital barcode spectrums, and post-war color field abstraction. At over six feet in height, the sheer physical scale and optical vibration of Spectra #11 make it a commanding museum-scale work. This piece carries distinguished provenance from TrépanierBaer Gallery in Calgary, one of Canada's premier contemporary art venues.
Douglas Coupland is one of Canada's most celebrated contemporary visual artists, authors, and cultural commentators. Since rising to international literary fame with his 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, Coupland has built a renowned visual arts practice spanning sculpture, painting, graphic media, and public installations. His work was the subject of a major mid-career retrospective, Douglas Coupland: Everywhere is Anywhere is Anything is Everything, organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and toured nationally to the Royal Ontario Museum. Coupland is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of British Columbia, and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Major Accolades & Honors:
Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.)
Member of the Order of British Columbia (O.B.C.)
Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A.)
Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
Selected Permanent Collections:
National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, ON)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY)
Glenbow Museum (Calgary, AB)
Doug Coupland
Spectra #11
2011
Colour pencils in plexi box
72 x 67.5 in
Provenance: Trepanier Baer Gallery
Created in 2011, Spectra #11 is a monumental sculpture from Douglas Coupland's acclaimed Spectra series. Standing six feet tall, this impressive work transforms thousands of mass-produced colored pencils into a glowing, architectural color field encased in a sleek Plexiglas box. By taking a ubiquitous, humble tool of everyday creativity and serializing it into an intricate chromatic grid, Coupland creates a compelling dialogue between Pop art, Minimalism, and contemporary optical design.
In the Spectra series, Coupland explores how color functions as language, emotion, and visual data in 21st-century culture. The tightly arranged pencils create subtle tonal gradations and linear rhythms, referencing traditional landscape painting, digital barcode spectrums, and post-war color field abstraction. At over six feet in height, the sheer physical scale and optical vibration of Spectra #11 make it a commanding museum-scale work. This piece carries distinguished provenance from TrépanierBaer Gallery in Calgary, one of Canada's premier contemporary art venues.
Douglas Coupland is one of Canada's most celebrated contemporary visual artists, authors, and cultural commentators. Since rising to international literary fame with his 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, Coupland has built a renowned visual arts practice spanning sculpture, painting, graphic media, and public installations. His work was the subject of a major mid-career retrospective, Douglas Coupland: Everywhere is Anywhere is Anything is Everything, organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and toured nationally to the Royal Ontario Museum. Coupland is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of British Columbia, and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Major Accolades & Honors:
Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.)
Member of the Order of British Columbia (O.B.C.)
Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A.)
Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence
Selected Permanent Collections:
National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, ON)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY)
Glenbow Museum (Calgary, AB)
