Istvan Kantor is an unusual "artist", who has produced art in many media, including performance art, robotic art, installation art, audio art, music, and experimental film. His art and ambitions have been heavily influenced by his location and social standing; his travels have brought him to reside in Budapest, Paris, Montreal, Portland, New York, and most recently, Toronto. He has performed globally, participating in major performance events in Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Transylvania, and Yugoslavia.
His art has brought a lot of negative attention toward him, as the vast majority of people do not see the artistic merit in splattering bloody Xs on the walls of art galleries (one such incident damaged a painting by Pablo Picasso), or slitting the throats of cats and wearing them as hats. This sort of behaviour has earned him more entries on his criminal record than it has earned him awards. He has been awarded for his work, of course. His awards to date include the Telefilm Canada Award for Best Canadian Video at Images festival in Toronto in 1998, and the Transmediale 01 award in Berlin for his video "Broadcast". Quite recently, there has been an uproar over the already controversial Governor General Adrienne Clarkson awarding him $15 000 CDN as a prize for the 2004 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts (there are seven winners this year), in the midst of a huge scandal in Canada relating to utter wastes of tax dollars.