ART STOP 2

Bryan Ryley

Sun Meets Moon, 2009

Acrylic on canvas

2.6 x 3.8 meters

Location: Bankers Court

Bryan Ryley was born in 1952 . He completed his B.F.A with Honours at the University of Victoria (1974), and his M.F.A. with Honours at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn ( 1977). He lives and works in Vernon, British Columbia.

Sun Meets Moon, as the painting is titled, implies an aerial view, as if one is flying over the prairie glimpsing the grid like structure of the land below. Across this elevated field of view two distinct forms appear to shift, one a yellow ‘Pacman’ shape with mouth agape (Sun) slides toward a blue crescent shape (Moon) appearing to be in closing in to swallow it whole. My thoughts here were to direct our attention to the mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the region, the first inhabitants who settled and developed the culture of the prairie. Along the sides of this work, black ‘oil like’ passages suggest the new riches of the land that have fuelled the development of the city that we see today.

Bryan Ryley’s work is found in numerous private and public collections, including: the Canadian Consulate, Paris, France; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconson; and numerous corporate collections including Canadian Pacific, SunLife Financial, IBM Canada, Brookfield Properties/bcIMC Realty, Encana, Cenovus, Petro Canada, Shell, amongst others.

Bryan Ryley

C Train, 2009

Acrylic on canvas

2.6 x 3.8 meters

Location: Bankers Court

Bryan Ryley was born in 1952 . He completed his B.F.A with Honours at the University of Victoria (1974), and his M.F.A. with Honours at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (1977). He lives and works in Vernon, British Columbia

C Train attempts to construct an urban feel in contrast to the rural landscape suggested in Sun Meets Moon. Much more figurative in structure, this work implies a more congested fee, more dense and urban. Within its hazy blur, forms appear to stand in a column like row. The title is to suggest that this may be a platform of the light rapid transit system of the new city, the energy and dynamic of the ongoing city. Instead of the “A Train” we are now riding the new frontier of the “C Train.”

Bryan Ryley’s work is found in numerous private and public collections, including: the Canadian Consulate, Paris, France; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconson; and numerous corporate collections including Canadian Pacific, SunLife Financial, IBM Canada, Brookfield Properties/bcIMC Realty, Encana, Cenovus, Petro Canada, Shell, amongst others.

Beverly Pepper

Nuova Twist, 2010

Corten steel

Dimensions: 18 feet x 12.5 feet

Location: Bankers Court

Beverly Pepper was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1922. She completed her studies at the Pratt Institute and studied at the Art Students League of New York. She lives in Todi, Italy, and is known for her monumental sculptural works, and her site-specific land art.

At 18 feet high and 12.5 feet at its widest, the sculpture’s presence at the Bankers Court in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is defined by its scale and gestural movement. Pepper’s vision is manifested as a sculpture of monumental scale that accentuates the arrival and entry experience at Bankers Court, while not overwhelming or crowding the site. Nuova Twist was created in 2009 by the artist at the age of 87.Another iteration of this sculpture is located at 40 West 57th Street, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. In 2013, the artist completed the outdoor sculpture Hawk Hill Calgary Sentinels for a park located in the SE sector of the city.

Pepper's works have been exhibited and collected by major museums and galleries throughout the world, including: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;the Whitney Museum of Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Gori Collection, Pistoia, Italy; and Museu d'Art Contemporari de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, to name a few.