Brian Jungen b. 1970

Private Collection, Vancouver

Jungen's first solo exhibition was at the Truck Gallery in Calgary in 1997, and it was about this time that he created a series of murals he called 'Field Samples'. These were executed in various places: the Banff Centre, the Truck Gallery and the Charles Scott Gallery. Although a number of these were made, they were all painted out except for this one, which was commissioned for a private apartment in 1998. When the owners moved in 2004, they cut out the mural and the wall on which it was painted, including the gyproc, plaster, and lath, which accounts for the great weight of this remarkable and early work.

Just a year later, Jungen began making his Transformation masks (Prototypes for New Understanding), which gave him instant, and astonished, attention in the Canadian art world.

Jungen went on the win the first prestigious Sobey Award in 2002. His work has now been hailed across Canada and internationally, shown in numerous leading institutions, and been a delight and a revelation to large audiences. His use of Nike shoes and other sports equipment, plastic chairs, wheeled garbage containers, which he transforms magically into masks, totem poles, whale skeletons, and gigantic, empty turtle shells, have enchanted and riveted artists, curators, collectors, and the general public.

This surviving mural was made by a complex process. The plaster and lath wall was first painted with the golden colour. On this Jungen projected a drawing he had made of a strange and complex figure that was part totem, part raven, and part whale. This enigmatic presence or entity was then brushed onto the wall, following the projection, with a clear latex. The wall was then painted blue and, when it dried, the latex was peeled away, revealing the figure as one floating in an azure sky.

This is a rare work by a rare artist, whose work has only once come to auction before, and signalled the fact that he is a major force not just in Canada but internationally.