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WHAT WE DO:
Black Artifex has produced site-specific public art for the cities of Edmonton and Spruce Grove as well as the County of Strathcona (Sherwood Park). The woodburned and firebranded mural ‘Heart of the Valley’ we have produced at the new Whitemud Equine Centre speaks to the history of the location as a homestead and farm, and as a place embedded within the natural landscape of the North Saskatchewan River Valley. For the Border Paving Athletic Centre in Spruce Grove, we produced a pair of murals, painted on modular panels, that speak to the community’s passion for healthy living while drawing inspiration from the Alberta landscape and the trees for which the town takes its name. Our hand-painted mural ‘Boreal Twilight’ at the Glen Allan Recreation Centre in Sherwood Park reimagines the building’s interior atrium as a natural clearing in Alberta’s Northern boreal forest with 480 sqft of detailed panoramic surface around all four walls. In addition to completed works, Black Artifex has been shortlisted twice for large scale projects for Edmonton’s new Valley Line LRT project and proposed over 20 additional public artworks over the past 2 years.
Black Artifex is fully capable of executing large-scale, site-specific, public art projects from conception, through to production and completion. Our unique collective skillset enables us to learn from a place, coming to understand both its history and innate potential; produce concrete architectural plans to illustrate a cohesive concept, specific to a particular location and the ideas it engenders; and produce and install a finished work within the specified timelines, in materials and a style that complement the site’s specificity.
Our designs are always rooted in their surroundings. We believe in making works that lift a space out of the ordinary to create special experiences for the viewer. For us, a public artwork must be visually accessible (easily understood and appreciated) by a range of people from all walks of life and backgrounds. It must also acknowledge and enhance its siting to become part of its environment and reflect the history and culture of the area. When this is accomplished, the artwork will be a lasting investment that becomes part of the place and community it occupies.
