_​Essential Tree_​, designed by the Berlin-based artist collective realities:united, is a large representation of the abstract trees used by architects in their design models. The artwork explores the natural environment, while at the same time paying homage to the topiaries of the European Baroque era. Placed in a planter, the sculpture interacts with the real Ash trees, which will be planted in the area. It will take 60 years for one of these trees to reach the scale of this 14.5 metre tall, faceted sculpture.

Realities:United

In 2000 the brothers Tim Edler and Jan Edler founded realities:united (realU), a studio for art, architecture and technology. realities:united develops and supports architectural solutions, usually incorporating new media and information technologies. The office provides consulting, planning, and research, also undertaking projects for clients such as museums, businesses, and other architectural firms.

One major focus of realities:united is architecture’s outward communicative capacity. Another is the quality of the user experience inside spaces, which in function and appearance is essentially augmented and changed by additional layers carrying information, media content and communication. Some of the studio’s projects resemble classical architectural work, but venture regularly into art, design, or technology research. Most projects are intended to serve as a catalyst in a given situation, and are therefore strongly determined by identifying, transforming, amplifying, and combining various existing potentials. In that sense the approach centres on taking advantage of available opportunities, rather than specific skills, procedures, or tasks. Although the majority of the projects incorporate new technologies or experimental approaches in one way or the other, the work always aims to affect actuality, not virtuality.

Strategic initiative and a high proportion of communication and mediation in work processes mark
many of the firm’s innovative projects. This approach creates the bridge between utopian ideas, abstract conceptions and realizations and has been recognized internationally. Currently realities:united is working on new projects in Europe, Asia and the USA.

_​Still Life_​is created by Studio F Minus. In writing about this sculpture installation, the artists say: ​“_​Still Life_​, of course, isn’t still at all. [The work is] a set of six sculptures located in the centre of the grassy space near the Grant MacEwan LRT station. On their own, each is a whimsical, colourful addition to the site. When viewed together from a viewpoint looking through the final sculpture, a picture frame, the sculptures flatten into the classic trope of Western painting: the still life with fruit bowl. The sculptures are spaced with enough distance between them that commuters or students can walk freely between them, entering and exiting the ​“picture”. In some ways, the sculptures are like a puzzle, one that invites pause in order for curious viewers to solve with their own positioning. However, the piece is designed to also incorporate those who move through it as an equally important part of the experience. The project is titled ​“Still Life” as a play on the vitality of the site [and is intended] to capitalize on the heavy pedestrian traffic surrounding the rail station by creating a piece that the commuting masses could interact with. The people viewing the piece, or even just passing by, actually activate and animate this Still Life. They turn the installation into a flat image by standing in front of the frame, and change the image by walking among the sculptures.

Studio F‑Minus

Brad Hindson is an architect and lighting designer who has notched extensive experience working with Canada’s top architecture and lighting design firms. Working at internationally-acclaimed offices KPMB and Diamond + Schmitt Architects, Hindson has contributed to the design of numerous high-profile buildings internationally, and served as project architect on prominent public art installations. Prior to moving to Toronto, Hindson was a designer at Gabriel Lighting Design, where his clients included the National Arts Centre and the City of Ottawa. He has since continued to lecture on lighting innovation, artistry, and technical execution to an international audience.

Mitchell F Chan is an interactive media artist who has exhibited in galleries across Canada and the United States. He made his American gallery debut in 2009 alongside Robert Rauschenberg at the Alan Avery Art Company in Atlanta, while back home his work continues to attract national media attention for its innovative blend of technology and intuitive human experience. In 2009, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago made him the recipient of their highest award as a Merit Scholar in their innovative Art & Technology Studies department. Most recently, his water-vapor sculpture was exhibited in the iconic John Hancock Tower, as part of an exhibition re-imagining the possibilities of public artworks in the city of Chicago.

Working in collaboration under the banner of Studio F‑Minus, Hindson and Chan have earned numerous plaudits for their work from critics and media outlets as varied as The Toronto Star, The National Post, Boing​bo​ing​.net, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Richard Florida’s Cre​ative​class​.com. Their first collaboration, A Dream of Pastures, opened to a one-night audience of 60 000 people outside the Art Gallery of Ontario. This debut effort was later exhibited as part of the Corcoran Gallery’s travelling exhibition Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change, a retrospective on some of the most technologically innovative and significant art of the past 150 years. Since then, their commissions have included the installation of a sound-responsive, environmentally-themed sculpture in Santiago Calatrava’s Allen Lambert Galleria at Brookfield Place; an exhibition of light-and-shadow artworks for Toronto’s Luminato Festival; and a series of trompe‑l’oeil sculptures for a new light rail station in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2011, Studio F‑Minus expanded its practice through public art collaborations with architecture firms such as Diamond + Schmitt and Du Toit Allsopp Hillier, and engineering firm Blackwell Bowick. They continue to pursue in new frontiers in lighting, networked technologies, and interactive media.

The painting pays respect to the land area where Edmonton is located, highlighting the colours of beautiful sky, the stories of the area, and clear waters from far away mountains. The white areas depict the coverage of the winter snowfalls and also the many days of clear skies. Eventually by spring all the snow will melt away. Then comes spring weather, delightful flowers, and farming begins on new life surrounding the city. When the beautiful blue skies become covered with rainy clouds they bring a refreshing blessing to the earth life of plants, and other living things flying or living on the ground. Stunning river valley scenery adds more beauty to the area. All roads lead to the area, Edmonton, as it is a central destiny for all who came before, and who came after. — _​Alex Janvıer, February 25, 2015_.

Alex Janvier

Alex Janvier was born in 1935 and is of Dene sųłı̨né́ and Saulteaux descent. At the age eight, he was sent to the Blue Quills Indian Residential School near St. Paul, Alberta. Janvier speaks of having a creative instinct from as far back as he can remember, and says he was given the tools to create his first paintings at the residential school. Unlike many Aboriginal artists of his time, he received formal training and graduated with honours from Calgary’s Alberta College of Art in 1960. Immediately after graduation, he took up a post at the University of Alberta. 

Janvier’s style is highly distinctive and involves an eloquent blend of abstract and representational images with bright, often symbolic colours. As a First Nations person emerging from a history of oppression and struggle for cultural empowerment, he paints the challenges and celebrations that he has encountered in his lifetime. Janvier credits the beadwork and birch bark basketry of his mother and other relatives as major influences.

His work has been exhibited internationally – most notably as a representative in a Canadian/​Chinese Cultural Exchange in 1985. In January 2004, one of Janvier’s works was displayed in Paris, France at the Canadian Forum on Cultural Enterprise. Nationally, Janvier has created several acclaimed murals; the 450 m² Morning Star at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, is a personal career highlight. 

Janvier is one of Canada’s most significant, pioneering Aboriginal artists. As a founding member of the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporated (PNIAI) – the so-called ​“Indian Group of Seven” he was key in challenging perceptions of Aboriginal art. His influence continues to be felt by First Nations today. Accolades include three prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, The Tribal Chiefs Institute, and Cold Lake First Nations, in addition to the Order of Canada and Alberta Order of Excellence. Janvier’s passion and natural talent for creative expression remain strong to this day.

_​Pillars of the Community_​mirrors the diversity of Edmonton’s population and its realities. Placed close to Rogers Place Arena, this artwork is intended to celebrate “…the unsung heroes, the daily faces, the less heard or under-praised that make up the majority of Edmonton society.” The faces depicted represent the generations of women who nurture youth; Elders who share wisdom; the homeless who represent the toils of urban life and social responsibility; artists who observe and reflect the world back to us; youth who represent the future and hope. The use of colour and lines draw connections and help to highlight Edmonton’s reality — urban, vibrant and yet still connected.

Layla Folkmann & Lacey Jane Wilburn

Both born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Lacey and Layla met studying Fine Art at Grant MacEwan in 2007. 

Their passion and dedication to artistic practice formed an inseparable friendship and a professional collaboration. They currently reside in Montréal, recently graduating from Concordia University with great distinction and studying at the L’ecole d’Enseignement Superieure d’Art in Bordeaux, France. 

They currently paint murals with A’Shop inc. as well as independently. Since 2010, they have painted over 40 murals all across Canada as well as Honduras, France and Northern Uganda where they volunteered with an orphanage and an artistic center for the reintegration of former child soldiers.

_9 Figures in Motion with a Puck_​, created by St. Albert-based artist Al Henderson, combines the disciplines of painting and sculpture to create an artwork that celebrates movement and motion. In creating the work, the artist thought about the rink and the activity that will animate it. The artwork is a graphic site specific installation of wall mounted fully round figures over a painted pattern. It commands the area above the upper entrance to the Community Rink. ​“These places have a sense of community, are a little wild sometimes, a bit proud and a whole lot of fun.” Bold, enticing and free-flowing, the work centres on a skater, and changes when viewed from many distances and angles by both pedway and rink users. The closer you get to the artwork, details such as pucks, skates, gestures, and small figures reveal themselves.

Al Henderson

Al Henderson was born and raised in Alberta and studied at the Alberta College of Art & Design. He has created a number of public commissions within Alberta and has consulted on public art at the provincial level. The recipient of project grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA), Henderson’s works are included in the AFA Collection.

This brightly coloured, circular sculpture achieves a dramatic pictorial presence. Its flowing, window-like form becomes a framing device capturing the dynamics of ice-skating. The push of the blade, as it cuts into the ice surface to propel the skater forward, is exemplified through a myriad of cutout shapes. These forms evoke the style of Henri Matisse, and combine to create the sculpture’s dynamic form. A stepped, podium-like plinth combined with the sculpture’s frame-like form create a welcoming symbol for the area — an artwork functioning as a place-maker identifying the facility and the activities therein.

Douglas Bentham

Douglas Bentham, RCA lives and works in a rural setting near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The recipient of numerous awards, Bentham graduated with a BA Advanced degree in painting from the University of Saskatchewan in 1969 and a MFA in sculpture in 1989. His sculptures can be seen in many settings across Canada.