Winnipeg sound and media artist Ken Gregory wins $30K distinction award

CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 2:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

Ken Gregory, known for his kindness and generosity arsenic overmuch arsenic his creativity successful transforming discarded and abandoned worldly into inspired artworks, has been awarded the 2025 Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction.

The $30,000 prize is given annually to a nonrecreational creator oregon arts/cultural nonrecreational successful designation of the highest level of creator excellence and publication to the improvement of the arts successful Manitoba, said a quality merchandise from the Manitoba Arts Council.

"For implicit 30 years, Ken has been a trailblazer successful the arts sector, gathering an awesome assemblage of show and installation enactment successful sound, video, machine programming, hardware hacking, interactive electronics and robotics," the quality merchandise says astir the award.

"Truly an creator up of his time," helium was integral to the occurrence of countless organizations, specified as Video Pool Media Arts Centre and nonstop + receive: A Festival of Sound.

Gregory's signifier has taken him crossed the world, participating successful prestigious residencies and exhibitions from Finland to Australia and Berlin.

His enactment has been exhibited crossed Canada and internationally, including his audio installation 12 Motor Bells, which was acquired by the National Gallery of Ottawa.

That installation features 12 occurrence alarm bells hanging next to 12 wheels of brushes.

Movement successful the room, oregon somesthesia changes, are detected by sensors and communicated to the motorized brushwood wheels, which past graze the bells and make a vibrating shimmer astatine a debased volume, an creator statement says.

Gregory maintains a YouTube leafage called Cheap Meat Dreams and Acorns, wherever helium shares video documentation of galore of his media artworks.

Fellow artists Daniel Barrow and Clint Enns, who nominated Gregory for the award, picture him as an artist's artist who is held successful the highest esteem by his peers, says the quality release.

"He is ever speedy to stock his techniques and connection originative solutions to different artists. This openness and willingness to experimentation is cardinal to his signifier and is combined with a rigorous investigation and critique — a uncommon operation that has infiltrated the Canadian creation country successful incalculable ways owed to Gregory's kindness and determined protocol for generosity," the information says.

All nominations for the grant were reviewed by a multidisciplinary sheet of peers who made their determination based connected the creator excellence of the candidate's enactment and their publication to the improvement of the arts successful Manitoba, the quality merchandise says.

Past grant of favoritism recipients see Jennine Krauchi (2024), Di Brandt (2023), Daina Warren (2022) and Alan Greyeyes (2020).