Author: MC

Edmonton artist Ryan McCourt is best known for his constructed metal sculptures. These works range from abstract and figurative welded steel forms, to polychrome reliefs made from crushed aerosol cans, to elegant assemblages and wearable helmets made from soldered brass. His two-dimensional work includes photography, vexillography, and ambiguous illustration. His experimental music as “The Synthesist” explores aesthetic and existential philosophical themes. McCourt founded the North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop, a cooperative shared studio, and Common Sense, an artist-run gallery. His work has earned numerous honours, and is held in public and private collections in Canada, the United States, and beyond; nevertheless, McCourt has also been the subject of repeated institutional censorship, by municipal government, arts organisations, and public broadcasters.

Opening Night

Posted on : 2002: 2026 by MC in Abstract Steel

Welded steel, 32 x 40 x 18, 2002. A theatre is at its most charged in the minutes before the curtain goes up, when everything is ready and nothing has happened. The sculpture is a stage in that interval, and nobody is on it. A half-disc platform sweeps forward at the center like an apron stage. … Continue reading Opening Night →

October: Revolution

Posted on : 2002: 2026 by MC in Abstract Steel

Welded steel, 2002. “Revolution” has two meanings, and the sculpture makes one object of both. It’s one trip of a body around a center, and it’s the overthrow of an order. The October Revolution is the Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd in October 1917, by the Russian calendar then in use. The month in … Continue reading October: Revolution →

Blood Vessel

Posted on : 2002: 2026 by MC in Figurative Steel

Welded steel, 25 x 16 x 10, 2002. “Vessel” has two meanings in the title. One is a container, a pitcher or flagon that holds blood. The other is the channel that carries blood through a body. The sculpture is a pitcher and a head, and the head is also the vessel. The pitcher side … Continue reading Blood Vessel →

Overture

Posted on : 2002: 2026 by MC in Abstract Steel, Available for purchase

Welded steel, 100 x 94 x 98, 2002. The English word covers three things that the sculpture turns into one. An overture is an opening, since the French ouverture means exactly that. It is also the piece an orchestra plays before an opera begins, while the audience settles and the curtain is still down. And it … Continue reading Overture →

Spanish Castle

Posted on : 2001: 2026 by MC in Abstract Steel, Available for purchase

Welded steel, 60 x 84 x 72, 2001. A child building a fort takes what’s at hand and gives each thing a job. A bowl becomes a turret, a ball becomes a foundation, a plate becomes a drawbridge, and each object stays recognizable under its new role. Spanish Castle is built that way. The title … Continue reading Spanish Castle →