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Biography

Vincent Grenier is a native of Quebec City, Canada. He has lived mainly in the U.S., mostly New York City and upstate New York. In spite of this, he was a frequent contributor to the Montreal Art scene of the 70’s and 80’s and the San Francisco Bay areas where he received an MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in the early 70's. Grenier's experimental films have been shown in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and China at showcases such as the Cineprobe at the Museum of Modern Art, the Anthology Film Archives, the Pacific Film Archives, the Collective for Living Cinema, Cinéma Parallel in Montréal, Centre George Pompidou in France, and MoCA Shanghai among many others. His films and videos earned him nine production grants from the Canada Arts Council between 1974 and 1992, and in New York state, from CAPS (1979), NYFA (1995), ETC (1992 & 1994), NYSCA (2007), and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2010). He is the recipient of the 2019 Stan Brakhage Vision Award.

Grenier has made over two dozen films and since the mid 90's nearly as many videos. Many of these videos were chosen for many years, in annual selections at key experimental film festivals such as Views from the Avant-Garde of the New York Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, in the Netherlands, Onion City Film Festival, Chicago, and Media City Film and Video Festival, Windsor, Ontario. Grenier's films and videos were the subjects of retrospectives, at the Denver Film Festival, the Cinémathèque québécoise, and in the fall of 2010 at Red Cat, LA Film Forum and Cal Arts, at Media City, Windsor, Ontario and Images Film & Video Festival's Canadian Images Spotlight, Toronto, in 2006. Seven of his films & videos were curated in the Whitney Museum of American Art 1970-2000 American Century Film program.

His video Watercolor, in 2014, received first prizes in the experimental category at the Black Maria Festival and Athens Film Festival. Les Chaises, earns Jury’s Choice, one of the first prizes, at Black Maria Film Festival 2009, and Honorable Mention at Media City Film & Video Festival, Windsor, Ontario. Tabula Rasa (2004) was screened in “Best Avant Garde Films & Videos of the Decade” program at the Walter Reade Theater and won a second prize at the Media City Film Festival, Windsor, Ontario. Here (2002) was awarded Gold for best Experimental film at the New York Film Expo. Color Study (2000) earned second prize at the Black Maria Film Festival. Feet (1994) won second prize at the 1995 Black Maria Film Festival and was shown in the WNET series Reel NY. His film Out in the Garden (1991) received Best Documentary at the 1992 Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Best Experimental Documentary at the 16th Atlanta Film/Video Festival. It was also shown on WNET and at London Film Festival. Interieur Interiors (1978) was a second prize winner, at the San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival, and World in Focus (1976) was a second prize winner at Ann Arbor Film Festival. Films by Grenier are included in the National Film Archive, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, AGO in Toronto and at many other institutions in Canada and the U.S.

Grenier is currently a Bartle Professor at Binghamton University and lives in Ithaca, N.Y.

Education

• MFA, San Francisco Art Institute in California