Bryan Cooperrider
Bryan, the youngest son of an engineer and an artist, has spent his life exploring the space between creativity and craftsmanship. Trained in engineering and design at Stanford University, his work ranges from fine woodworking to playful sculptures and street art created from found and discarded objects.
Inspired by the connection between beauty and waste, Bryan transforms everyday materials into pieces that invite curiosity, humor, and reflection. His art celebrates the overlooked while encouraging people to find beauty in unexpected places.
Bryan has exhibited throughout Arizona and internationally. He lives with his wife Beth in Flagstaff, where he works from his home studio. An avid cyclist, he often finds inspiration—and materials for his work—while riding his bicycle through the world around him.
Biography
The youngest son of an engineer and an artist, Bryan has lived most of his life spanning the space in between. Trained in engineering and design at Stanford University he lined up a creative path and the skill to realize those creations. While balancing work as an educator and raising a young family, Bryan found ways to keep art in his life, often done as a family adventure. His work over the years has spanned from fine woodworking to the absurd. Now he is drawn to that which we choose to discard. We live in a world of staggering beauty, filled with copious waste. The two are often interwoven. The world presents its beauty through nature, and we perceive it through our senses – sound, sight, feel. We return our waste back to nature, often a product of the human maladies of greed, inequality, fear, desperation. Bryan’s work is inspired by this connection. His work is embodied by playfulness, and the beauty in everyday things, and almost always inspired by the many found objects that make up much of his work. You will also find his work in nooks and crannies in public spaces as he shares and connects through street art. And despite these changing times and the growing garbage piles, he still believes in beauty. It’s everywhere. You just need to look. And hopefully his work adds to that beauty. Bryan has displayed his art throughout his home state of Arizona as well as internationally. He lives with his wife Beth in Flagstaff, Arizona and works out of his home studio. He owns nine bicycles and prefers to be on a bicycle whenever possible. The bicycle offers a meditative space as well as a great way to get out and look for shiny objects on the ground. You never know what you might find.
