Wyn Gelenyse

Wyn Geleynse (born 1947) is a pioneer film and video projection artist whose career spans a period of over 40 years.

Career Wyn Geleynse was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and he and his parents emigrated from Rotterdam to London, Ontario, in 1953. The so-called "London Regional School" in art had an impact on Geleynse's development as an artist, especially Greg Curnoe and Murray Favro and influenced him in making art from his everyday surroundings.

Work In 1979, Geleynse combined an interest in model-making with photography. Since 1981, the artist has integrated film into this process, creating installation-based works in which short films loops are projected against or as part of a host of fabricated items and with people, often himself, in the films, accompanied by his ironic comments. To these works, he applies custom film loopers, viewfinders and other objects to transform the viewer's reception of the image. He often uses biographical footage, and his work speaks about matters such as self-identity, male sexuality, powerlessness and haplessness. For haplessness, he uses himself in his films. As he said:"I think I can be hapless better than most people". as well as projecting images on buildings.

Exhibitions Since 1969, when he began to show his work in solo shows, he has exhibited extensively in Canada and Europe. and in 1989, at the Art Gallery of Windsor and Art Gallery of Hamilton. In the early 1990s, he had solo shows mainly in the United States, then in the mid-1990s and till 2008, abroad in Holland and France. In 2003, he had a solo exhibition at the Centre culturel canadien in Paris. In 2005, his show A Man Trying to Explain Pictures, was organized by Museum London, London, Ontario. In 2020, he built a large model titled Shelter for a show at TrepanierBaer Gallery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, which represents him.

Commissions Since 1987, he has projected film on buildings in Canada and Europe and participated in shows on projections, solo or group.

Selected public collections His work is in such public collections as Art Windsor-Essex; the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; Museum London; the National Gallery of Canada; the Remai Modern and elsewhere.

Awards In 2018, Geleynse received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.