As Lights on the Exchange illuminates historic buildings, it also aims to spotlight the artists whose creations transform the Exchange District. These artists tell alternative narratives and histories through their stunning visual projections, demonstrating light’s artistry. Projection artworks are curated by our friends at Manufacturing Entertainment.
Olúùji
Olúùji’s work is a striking fusion of old and new, a dialogue between analog technology and artificial intelligence. His piece, ‘Feedback from Room 101’, is an excerpt from his residency at Video Pool last summer, where Colby Richardson mentored him. In his piece, Olúùji
harnesses the unpredictable feedback of analog video mixers alongside generative AI, positioning himself as a conductor rather than a creator in the traditional sense. Inspired by the apprehension many artists feel toward AI-generated art, Olúùji challenges the notion that machine-assisted work is less valuable or meaningful. “We’ve been using machines to make art forever, and just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s bad,” he explains. His piece invites viewers to reconsider their biases and explore AI’s role in artistic expression, not as a replacement for human creativity but as an extension of it.
“It was important to me to explore these new mediums to make something that I can’t paint.”
Beyond the technological interplay, his work speaks to the deep and longstanding relationship between humans and machines. Art has always evolved alongside innovation, and this project is a natural progression for Olúùji, who comes from a traditional painting and drawing background. “It was important to me to explore these new mediums to make something that I can’t paint,” he says. “I can’t paint something that’s perpetually moving and never the same frame twice.” With AI-generated visuals and all-seeing eyes, his projection is a nod to George Orwell’s 1984, specifically the room where prisoners are sent to face their biggest fears. His digital work’s aesthetic still carries echoes of his hand-drawn and painted compositions, demonstrating that artistic intent transcends medium.
Bringing his piece to the Exchange District feels like both a contrast and a perfect fit. “The Exchange is the heart of Winnipeg’s arts community,” he notes, referencing institutions like Video Pool, Urban Shaman, and Ace Art. “For a city like Winnipeg, the arts district is very important because there’s not a lot of places to get the feeling you get in the Exchange. It feels very Montreal or New York.” Olúùji’s piece is a high-tech installation amidst an area steeped in history and known for its heritage buildings. He embraces this juxtaposition, believing it sparks something exciting and fresh. It feels simultaneously like an outlier and an evolution. It’s a glimpse into the future projected onto the past.
You can find Olúùji’s Feedback from Room 101 at 80 Rorie St.
Instagram: @oluuji
Website: https://kamokaftanrecords.com/lujgallery
Lydia Yakonowsky
Lydia Yakonowsky’s piece, ‘Statistical Bouquet 4,’ is a mesmerizing fusion of mathematics and art, transforming data points and graphs into a blooming, botanical landscape of light. Lydia draws from her background in economics in her art, reconstructing the rigid structures of statistics into something fluid, organic, and visually beautiful. Using TouchDesigner, a real-time node-based programming software, she generates dynamic visuals that evolve in real-time, making each projection feel alive. What was once a series of cold, analytical data points is reborn as a vibrant, mathematical garden.
Lydia’s piece is projected on the Manitoba Museum, just steps away from the planetarium — a fitting placement given her specialty in full-dome visuals. While the planetarium maps the vast beauty of the cosmos, Statistical Bouquet charts a statistical landscape, finding beauty in unexpected, mathematical places. Her work invites viewers into a world where numbers become nature, and data becomes something warm and luminous.
“There’s this dialogue between the architecture and the feeling of one place and the vision of one artist that goes together with the environment. It really gives new light to an environment that you may be used to seeing every day.”
For Lydia, public art plays a crucial role in reimagining familiar spaces. It offers buildings a new “wardrobe,” temporarily transforming them without altering their physical structure. “There’s this dialogue between the architecture and the feeling of one place and the vision of one artist that goes together with the environment. It really gives new light to an environment that you may be used to seeing every day,” she shares. She loves that public projections make art democratic and more accessible. Unlike galleries, where some may feel intimidated, public installations invite everyone to experience and interpret art on their own terms.
Statistical Bouquet is an act of artistic generosity. “I really want it to be an offering of beauty for everyone to see,” explains Lydia. Inspired by works she encountered at the Venice Biennale that focused on healing and love, Lydia envisions her piece as a gift, a bouquet of light sent from her home in Montreal to Winnipeg. In the cold depths of winter, Lydia’s projection reminds us that art, even when rooted in logic and data, has the power to comfort and connect.
Visit Statistical Bouquet at 555 Main St. at the Manitoba Museum / Steinkopf Gardens.
Instagram: @kaminska.visuals
Website: https://www.lydiayakonowsky.ca/
Scott Leroux
Scott Leroux was a creative force — instinctual, prolific, and endlessly collaborative. His art wasn’t made for an audience; it was inevitable, a condition of his existence. Whether through video, music, photography, or painting, Scott approached every medium with an open mind, an experimental spirit, and an irrepressible drive to create. Through his own creative practice, he made space for others to do the same. If you had an idea, Scott would help bring it to life, often turning casual conversations into fully realized projects. A co-worker who loved to sing? That became two music videos. A friend with an instrument? A recording session by the next day. Scott believed in art as an act of exploration, and in every person’s ability to create.
Scott’s creative home was in the Exchange District. He spent countless hours at the Artspace building and Video Pool Media Arts Centre (VP), where he embraced the facility’s vintage equipment with the enthusiasm of a true tinkerer. After earning a juried artist fund that granted him a year of free access to VP’s resources, he immersed himself in experimentation, taking advantage of every tool at his disposal. VP staff said they had not seen someone utilize the opportunity quite like Scott did. The tools became conduits for play, learning, and discovery. Whether recording music, manipulating visuals, or exchanging ideas with fellow artists, Scott was always in motion, fueled by an insatiable curiosity.
His piece in Lights on the Exchange, Pepper Green Pepper, is emblematic of his artistic approach. Projected in quadruple across four windows at 52 Albert Street, the video plays with visual patterns, color, and form, capturing Scott’s fascination with analog technology and the unpredictable beauty of experimentation. It’s a work that invites interpretation — meant to be experienced rather than explained, much like the artist himself.
In his memory, VP and Scott’s family have established the Scott Leroux Fund for Media Arts Exploration, a research residency supporting artists in their exploration of technology and creativity. His spirit of curiosity and generosity lives on, encouraging new generations of artists to experiment, collaborate, and create without fear.
Experience Pepper Green Pepper at 52 Albert Street, running daily from sunset to midnight until March 21.
For more on the Scott Leroux Fund for Media Arts Exploration, visit: https://videopool.org/scott-leroux-fund-for-media-arts-exploration/
Thanks to Julie Gendron, Zorya Arrow, and Nathan Krahn for contributing to this piece.