Lowell Boileau
Fine Art Painter and Website Artist

Detroit artist Lowell Boileau is a self-taught painter and website artist.

Boileau’s artwork has been displayed in numerous exhibitions and venues including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Gruen Gallery in Chicago, and throughout the United States and Germany . He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan, Burg Giebichenstein - University of Art and Design in Halle, Germany, Wayne State University, and Youngstown State University. He also was a guest at the international art colony of Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Along with fellow artist Stephen Goodfellow he developed the micropointillist painting technique whereby all of his brightly colored and luminescent paintings are created using only the three primary colors of yellow, red and blue.

A three-time Michigan Creative Artist Grant winner as well as a recipient of the Arts Midwest NEA Grant for painting and the Arts America Grant, Boileau has been profiled and reviewed in Wired magazine, The New York Times, Detroit Sunday Journal, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, Detroit Metro Times, Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachtrichten (Germany), City Arts Review, and Solidarity magazine. He was a co-subject of the 1983 documentary on the micropointillism painting technique, Waterworks, produced by Urban Communications of Detroit.

His current major work is the DetroitYES Project [www.DetroitYES.com], a 2000+ page website inspired by the transformation of Detroit from Industrial to Information Age city, and hosting the most renowned discussion forum on Detroit and its issues. The website has been selected as a Yahoo Pick of the Year in 1998, twice selected as Detroit MetroTimes reader’s choice Best Detroit Website, as Detroit Free Press Best Website and profiled in many media sources including The New York Times, PBS TV, and Wired magazine. DetroitYES.com with its core tour “The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit” attracts over 3 million visitor sessions per year who view over twenty million pages. His other web art creations include SoulfulDetroit.com and The Lost Synagogues of Detroit [Shtetlhood.com]. Boileau’s paintings and web art can be viewed online at www.AtDetroit.net.

Background:

A Michigan native, Boileau earned BA in Political Science from Taylor University in 1968 after which he served two years teaching woodworking and technical drawing at Salesian High School in Manzini, Swaziland, as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. He engaged in post-graduate studies at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University in intellectual history and political theory before deciding in 1972 to pursue a career as a fine artist. His travels as a painter have taken him throughout Mexico, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

With the arrival of the World Wide Web in 1993, Boileau discovered a new medium for expanding and expressing his urban landscape interest. After creating the first Detroit fine art website in 1994 he went on to create his interactive web art project “The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit”, now known as the DetroitYES Project.

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Lowell Boileau Career Highlights

• Video Micropointillism: Defining a Medium - 2008
• "Intersections" - Displays Painting "Open House" at inaugural exhibition of Work: Detroit Gallery in Detroit - Sept. 22, 2007
• Recognized as one of the "Best Detroit Artists to Collect" - Hour Magazine - "Best of Detroit Issue" - June 2007
• Recognized on Detroit’s Emerging and Established Artists. Crain’s Detroit Business - July 2007
• Panelist - Computers and Writing Conference - Wayne State University - Detroit Blogs - June 2007
• Panelist - Society of Professional Journalists Conference -Detroit Renaissance Center - Detroit Blogosphere - May 2007
• Group Exhibition at Izzy's Raw Art Gallery - Detroit - Sept - Oct 2006
• Michigan State Outdoor 3 Wall Handball Class Champion - Oct 2005
• "Detroit360" - Solo Art Exhibition - Detroit - January - April 2005
• "The Website as Art" - Presentation lecture Communication Studies 478 - Visual Communications University of Michigan Oct. 2004
• DetroitYES.com select as Best Detroit Website by Detroit MetroTimes, Oct. 2003.
• DetroitYES.com selected as Best of Detroit website Hour Magazine. Summer 2003.
• Presentation Tour of the Ruins of Detroit - University of Michigan 2001 & 2003
• Best of Michigan Website - DetroitYES.com - Detroit Free Press 2003
• DetroitYES.com select as Best Detroit Website by Detroit MetroTimes, 2002 & 2003.
• "The Website as Art" Presentation and projection. Youngstown State University - October 2002
• Projection Presentation "Website as Art" - American Studies Department - Wayne State University - October 2001
• Fabulous Ruins Nights - Web art projection / environment presentation - Feb. 2001
• "The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit" named as a Yahoo Pick of the Year for 1998 - January 1999
• Creates "The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit" 1996-1997, first large "for-art" website to use the new medium of the website to paint a massive virtual portrait of the international metropolis of Detroit. This later evolves to become the core of DetroitYES.com
• The Website as Art.   1996 to Present. 
• Exhibits "Total Intervention", a multimedia interactive work with a website presence, at the Detroit Institute of Arts June - September 1995
• Creates Website Boileau in 1994, the first fine art website from Detroit
• Painting exhibition "Urban Landscapes" at Gruen Gallery, Chicago, IL from September 8 to October 4, 1995
• Creation member of the Michigan Conference of Arts Wire, an online network of Michigan arts organizations
• "Art and Technology" panelist at "Information Superhighway" workshop for Michigan Corporate Grantmakers Ford World HQ, Dearborn 1994
• Awarded Arts Foundation of Michigan grant for electronic art 1993
• Wins Michigan State Class B Outdoor 3 Wall Handball Championship - 1992
• Awarded Arts America Grant: Exhibits and creates artworks in Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany, May - June 1992
• Creates a 80 x 2 foot [25 x .6 meter] micropointillist painting "Gentle Chaos" on a Stuttgart city bus May - June 1992
• Guest at international art colony Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany May - June 1992
• Exhibits paintings and gives demonstrations of micropointillist painting technique in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Halle May - June 1992
• Painting tour Alsace, France September-October1991
• Organizes and tours with "Detroit Realismus" exhibition Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, and Stuttgart, Germany May and June 1990
• Awarded Arts Midwest National Endowment for the Arts grant for painting 1990
• Awarded Michigan Council for the Arts grant for painting 1990
• Awarded a Michigan Council for the Arts creative artist grant 1986
• Painting "Construction Zone" exhibited in "Automobile and Culture" exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts 1986
• Co-subject of 1983 documentary film on micropointillism "Waterworks" produced by Urban Communications of Detroit
• First art exhibition, June 1980
• Eight months of painting in Mexico in various trips in late 1970's early 80's
• Sears Delivery Driver 1972-1979
• Quits school, forever, to be an artist 1972
• Seven month journey from Swaziland, through Middle East and Europe to US 1971
• U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer teaching woodworking and technical drawing at Salesian High School, Manzini, Swaziland 1968-1970
• Post-graduate studies University of Michigan, and Wayne State University in intellectual history and political theory 1967-8, 1971-72
• Graduates cum laude with BA Degree in Political Science from Taylor University 1968
• Born: March 6, 1945

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