Ryan McCourt

Quick Facts

Full Name	Ryan McCourt
Occupation	Canadian Artist
Date Of Birth	Feb 23, 1975(1975-02-23)
Age	49
Birthplace	Edmonton
Country	Canada
Birth City	Alberta
Horoscope	Aquarius

Ryan McCourt Biography

Ryan McCourt is one of the most popular and richest Canadian artist who was born on February 23, 1975 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Ryan McCourt, a Canadian late-modernist artist, was born February 23, 1975. He is best known for his “elegant” sculptures. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

McCourt opened Common Sense in Edmonton, a gallery space located at 10546 – 115 Street. It was managed by the North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop. Common Sense is not a traditional gallery or artist-run centre. It has a mandate to donate 100% of the proceeds of art sales to exhibiting artists. Amy Fung, an art writer, says that Common Sense is not an artist-run center in any official sense. Instead, it is a space managed by artists in the old-fashioned …. sense. It is essentially an artist’s dream in a city lacking space.

Despite such negative responses in the media to art censorship in Canada, in 2014 the Edmonton Arts Council subsequently refused a donation of one of McCourt’s sculptures, Destroyer of Obstacles, evidently because the sculpture had genitalia beneath its clothes. After meeting with seven Hindu community group representatives to seek out their opinion of the donation, the Edmonton Arts Council received a response that McCourt’s sculpture was “an offense to their religion” and that the ban enacted by Mayor Mandel should remain in place. As a result of this consultation, “the Public Art Committee unanimously voted to decline acceptance of the gift, as the artwork did not meet ‘community or civic suitability’ criteria.” In McCourt’s view, “It is not the purpose of a city’s public art collection to placate special interests,” he says. “I want Edmonton to build the best civic art collection that we can get, never mind the politics, the religion, etc. of the artists making the work.”

McCourt received the Lee Fund for the Arts Award; is a two-time recipient of the Edmonton Artists Trust Fund Award; and the recipient of a number of Project Grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. His 2000 photograph After David, and 2003 sculpture Atlas are included in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ collection. Fanfare, a steel sculpture by McCourt from 1999, is in the art collection of the University of Alberta. Honky Tonk, also from 1999, is in the collection of the Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden. “The Abduction of Liberty, from 2006, was donated to the City of Edmonton and installed in the Belgravia Art Park in 2009. McCourt was awarded First Prize in the headdress category of the 2009 Wearable Art Awards in Port Moody, British Columbia for “The Helmet of Laocoön.” In 2011, McCourt was named one of Edmonton’s “Top 40 Under 40” by Avenue Edmonton for his support of local artists and his encouragement of “critical discourse”. On August 19, 2016, McCourt’s “Edmontonian Flag” was presented to Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson by Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations Grand Chief Randy Ermineskin, “as a symbol of their commitment to collaboration, respectful dialogue and exploring shared opportunities” and “to symbolize a new dawn in Nation-to-Nation relationship building.”

McCourt was first to exhibit sculpture outside Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre for one year in 2006. McCourt’s exhibit, Will and Representation was an installation of four large sculptures that were based on Ganesha (a Hindu deity). After receiving a petition from 700 people complaining about the sculptures’ “disrespectful nudity”, Stephen Mandel, the then-Mayor Edmonton ordered that the works be removed. This was reportedly done ten months after the opening of the exhibition. McCourt responded to a question by saying that nudity seemed like a very quaint way to get one’s knickers in knots, in the 21st Century. I also don’t like all the art, so I don’t try to get people to sign a petition to make art disappear. This would be extremely offensive in a democracy such as Canada.

Ryan McCourt Net Worth

Ryan McCourt is one of the richest Canadian Artist from Canada. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Ryan McCourt 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

McCourt was an undergraduate student in 1995 and was a photographer for the Edmonton Eskimos Football Club. McCourt completed his MFA and worked as an Artistic Coordinator at The Works Art Expo 2001. He also curated Resolutions, an exhibition of paintings by Tony Baker from Canada, at the Edmonton Art Gallery. McCourt established the North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop in 2002. This was a collaborative shared-studio project that aimed to promote contemporary sculpture. McCourt also produced the Big Things sculpture series at The Royal Alberta Museum between 2002 and 2006. McCourt was an instructor of Visual Fundamentals in 2003 at the University of Alberta. McCourt, along with Ralph Klein, the then-Alberta Premier, unveiled his 5.5-meter tall sculpture, A Modern Outlook, in Edmonton’s 18550-118A Avenue. McCourt organized 2005’s Alberta Centennial Sculpture Exhibition at Royal Alberta Museum.

Ryan David McCourt was the youngest of Ken McCourt and Sheelagh McCourts five children. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He attended Patricia Heights Elementary School and Hillcrest Junior High School. Jasper Place High School was his high school. McCourt earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1997 and his Master of Fine Arts (Sculpture) in 1999 at the University of Alberta. McCourt was also a student of Peter Hide, Edmonton’s modernist tradition of welding sculpture.

Media coverage of the sculptures’ removal was widespread, with articles appearing in the news as far away as India. Public reaction to Mandel’s censorship decree was generally disapproving. In an interview with the Edmonton Journal’s Paula Simons, David Goa, religious scholar, cultural anthropologist, and director of the University of Alberta’s Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life, states “In India, Lord Ganesha is on everything – playing cards, advertising signs, lotto tickets, even diapers, I suspect.” Simons concludes, “In his haste to appease a few protesters, the mayor, usually a champion of the arts, made a serious error in judgment. Instead of giving McCourt’s divinely inspired statues the bum’s rush, we should be celebrating this Canadian cross-pollination of cultures and aesthetic forms”. The Globe and Mail’ s columnist Margaret Wente agreed with Simons: “The mayor, of course, was quite wrong. Mr. McCourt’s sculptures did not insult the Hindu community. They insulted a small but vocal conservative religious group that is about as representative of Hindus as Hassidic Jews are of Jews…. There’s a big difference between respecting different cultures and caving in to illiberalism and superstition.”

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is Ryan McCourt Dating?

According to our records, Ryan McCourt is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, Ryan McCourt’s is not dating anyone.

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Facts & Trivia

Ryan Ranked on the list of most popular Canadian artist. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in Canada. Ryan McCourt celebrates birthday on February 23 of every year.