Through the personal journey of Olga Alexopoulou, beginning with the search for rare blues and leading to the synthesis of the first quantum pigment, Quantum Blue, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, a new chapter in the history of colour unfolds.
Tracing major historical transitions, from egg tempera to oil paints and then to acrylics, we arrive at quantum colours. These represent a radically different category of pigments, as their properties arise from quantum confinement rather than pigment chemistry. Quantum colours are made from nanocrystals, which give us the ability to manipulate light in ways that were previously beyond our reach. Until now, conventional colours simply reflect light. Nanocrystals, however, capture light and convert it into purer colour, which is then not only reflected but also emitted.
The development of quantum pigments paves the way for a new theory of colour bridging the visible and invisible parts of the spectrum to create a realm where light itself is subordinated to the artist’s will.
The talk will be delivered in Greek.
About Olga Alexopoulou
Olga Alexopoulou is a painter whose work has been exhibited in galleries and museums from Tokyo to New York. She was born in Athens and studied at the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford. In 2018, she created a new pigment called Quantum Blue with a small team of scientists at Berkeley Lab, and now leads Quantum Light, the only company in the world specialising in quantum pigments. Olga is represented by Istanbul Concept Gallery.
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