Claire Elise Boucher, known professionally as “Grimes”, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. While being best known for her music, she also has some serious art world credentials. She designs her album covers all by herself and stated that her art was influenced by Japanese anime, manga, and comic art such as Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes.
Her illustrations have appeared in gallery shows including Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. “I see myself as a visual artist first and foremost, and I’ve always felt strange that people know me for music.” Said, Boucher. In 2020, she debuted her first art show, called “Selling Out”.
Selling Out is an online exhibition. Her creation is titled Grimes, a persona and the imagined realm that she inhabits. Even though her art is controversial, we can address it as the “lowbrow” style.
Having a huge impact on digital art, she also sold nearly 6 million dollars worth of digital art in the form of non-fungible tokens, it was a series that included 10 pieces. The highest-selling one of all was a one-of-a-kind video called “Death of the Old”. The video involved flying cherubs, a cross, a sword, and a glowing light.
Even though fans appreciate her outstanding work, Art Angels, she is not really satisfied with it since she believes people misread it and that it felt like a stain in her life. She was behind the concept and the art direction for the corresponding music videos to track Butterfly, World Princess Part 2, Scream, and Belly of the Beat.
As you can see from her video clips and album covers, she was not aiming toward a pop record, even though it is considered a pop record and has mainstream success. She reflects her relationships, her traumas, her fears, and literally anything that is going on in her life on her songs, videos, and art she makes.
At the same time, she has quite an interesting personality, she named her son (whose father is Elon Musk) X Æ A-XII, which initially was called X Æ A-12 but then the name was illegal under California law since it included numerals. And it gets weirder when she legally put part of her soul up for sale, 2 years ago in the auction for her artwork, she included a legal document that would grant anyone willing to purchase it a part of her soul