Dr Ken Giles

Dr Giles has a Bachelor of Applied Arts (BAA - Hons) in Media Arts – Photography from Ryerson University, 1990; a Master of Fine Arts (MFA - summa cum laude) from University of Michigan, 1992 [Major in Photography, Minors in Art History and Sculpture]; and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from University of Kent, 1997 in the History and Theory of Arts - The Photograph.

From 2019 – 2024, he was Art & Design Foundation Tutor and Convenor within the International Foundation Programme at the University of Kent. In 2024, Dr Giles transferred to the School of Arts and Architecture and now has taken on the role of Course Director for the Architecture with a Foundation Year pathway. He has a professional landscaping and construction contracting background alongside his photographic and architectural drafting and rendering training and knowledge. With 33 years of university teaching experience in the USA, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada, his education pedagogy is a direct reflection of his passion for bringing the analogue and digital features of architectural photography, architectural drafting, visualization, 3D modelling and physical scale modelling techniques into a unique learning philosophy.    

His photographic work has been included in solo and group exhibitions spanning Australia, England, Germany, Belgium, France, the USA and Canada. Conceptual photographic works produced from 2007-2011 were exhibited at the Art Gallery of Windsor in Ontario, Canada in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, a photographic project, 49 Degrees Latitude, utilizing GPS positioning along the 49th parallel, was exhibited at Work•Detroit Gallery, Detroit, Michigan. Gravity and Zero Gravity was exhibited in Ann Arbor at the Stamps Gallery, University of Michigan in 2016, with standing in front of or behind the fire hydrant being included at the Jean Paul Slusser Gallery in 2017. His longstanding and ongoing documentary project Glove was included in The Story of Things at SB Contemporary, Windsor, Ontario in 2017. In 2018 a solo exhibition entitled urbus: located in the urban, was also presented at SB Contemporary.

Alongside his exhibitions, he has taken on commissioned artist essays, including Lived Experience: Walking – A Contemplative Time Frame, 2013, written for the celebrated International and Canadian artist Iain Baxter&. Other commissions appeared in national and international exhibition catalogues for Amin Rehman, History Begins With Us, for the Zahoo-ul-Akhlag Gallery, National College of Arts, Lahore Pakistan, 2015; I Reiterate: A is For…, A is For…, for Artcite, Windsor, Ontario and the McIntosh Gallery, London, Ontario, 2013; and Palimpsest: a messy state of affairs, for the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Ontario, 2011. Dr Giles also wrote the exhibition catalogue essay for Dan Bernyk’s work Shift, 2009, shown at the Thames Art Gallery in Chatham, Ontario, and the collective group catalogue essay for Open Corridor, 2010 for the Green Corridor Art Initiative in Windsor, Ontario.