Gregory Wilkins: Finding purpose through embroidered collage
Gregory Wilkins is a self-taught artist. He grew up in a multi-ethnic, multi-national family and always felt ‘different’ throughout his childhood. His mother encouraged him to express himself and he started to explore creativity through performance and art. He travelled the world, immersing himself in different cultures and supporting causes fighting for equality.
These experiences have driven his life of creativity and form the foundation of his artworks. Greg’s work on paper and canvas uses reconstruction and collage, paint, photography, stitch and beadwork to represent the layers and complexities of life and explore the meaning of existence.
In 2016 and 2019 Greg received Professional Mid-Career Artist Grants from Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council. He was awarded an Artists on Main Street grant (via the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota) and a Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council Small Arts Project Grant in 2018. He has won numerous awards including best in show at the ‘410 Project’ juried exhibitions in 2018 and 2017 (Mankato, Minnesota), the Ringholz Foundation Art Prize in 2018 and first place in the Arts Center of St. Peter juried exhibition, Minnesota, in 2017. His work is held in private collections in Minnesota, California, Florida, Idaho, and Washington, DC.
In this interview, Greg shares how he struggled to fit in as a child and how he gradually learned to embrace his feeling of uniqueness, feeding his passion for creativity with his art. Discover how his career developed and how issues of global community and social inequality inspire his work. Find out how he creates his layered works in a mindful and organic way to satisfy his need to express himself. “For me, art is not a choice. It is a necessity.”