Vtape artist and long-serving former board member Nelson Henricks is the recipient of the 2023 Prix Louis-Comtois, a highly respected Montréal arts prize awarded annually by the Ville de Montréal and the Contemporary Art Galleries Association. The award follows a tour-de-force exhibition of two new installations at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in fall 2022-spring 2023. Henricks told Concordia University News, “It’s great to have this recognition from the city I’ve lived in for over 30 years and feel like I’m part of it. Many of those who received the prize in the past are artists I admire and respect, and I feel privileged to be counted among them.”

Nelson relocated from Bow Island, Alberta to Montréal to study film at Concordia University in 1991; he is now an instructor in Concordia’s Department of Studio Arts. He has taught art history and video production at Concordia University, McGill University, UQAM, and Université de Montréal. An artist, writer, curator and musician, Henricks is best known for his videotapes and video installations, which have been exhibited worldwide. A focus on his work was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the Video Viewpoints series in 2000. His writings have been published in exhibition catalogues, magazines, and in several anthologies. Henricks was the recipient of the Bell Canada Award in Video Art in 2002 and received the Board of Govenors’ Alumni Award of Excellence from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2005. A mid-career retrospective of his work was presented at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery in Montréal in 2010. Henricks’s work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, the National Bank of Canada, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. In 2015 he was the laureate of the Giverny Capital Prize.

Everyone at Vtape sends our warmest congratulations to Nelson for this richly deserved recognition.

Image credits: home page, still from Don’t You Like the Green of A?, by Nelson Henricks (2022); above, Untitled (Score), by Nelson Henricks & Jackie Gallant (2007).