Redbull Canvas Cooler Project

Earlier this month, Toronto’s best emerging and established artists participated in the Red Bull Canvas Cooler Project at 99 Sudbury Street, where 16 local artists turned regular Red Bull coolers into one of a kind art pieces, in an eight-hour studio session.

These innovative custom pieces will be permanently placed in venues across Toronto’s downtown arts district. Each venue was handpicked by Red Bull Canada and each establishment chose an artist to represent them in the project.
At an unveiling gala at the Red Bull Canada headquarters Thursday night, artists showcased their work before the custom-made pieces were to be placed in a local bar or restaurant.

Sonia Klinger, Media Relations Specialist at Red Bull Canada, says that a project such as this supports the local artists and the community, in a promotional crossover between Red Bull and the local Toronto art scene.

It brings the artists to the forefront and it’s giving them an opportunity to creatively express themselves and to create these pieces that are going to stay in these venues for a long time,” she says.

The project was introduced in Bristol England earlier this year. Toronto’s event was the third ever canvas cooler project.

Toronto artist Bruno Billio was asked to create a piece for two venues, the Great Hall and Samuel J. Moore Room. He took a conceptual approach to the project, and created a gold wrapping piece using text, rather than aerosol or paint. He explains that the Red Bull project positively affects him and his fellow artists, and says he enjoyed participating.

“I like manipulating an object that way, but still maintaining its function… I love Red Bull, and I’ve seen their shows around the world. They support artists and I think the concept of their company is just great, so to be a part of it is absolutely exciting,” he says, before adding, “It gives me access into that corporate conversation, marketing and media, which I find interesting. It allows me to play using my name and know that they’re going to go into very popular places.”

Ewelina, a collage-aged Polish artist who moved back to Toronto three months ago created a surrealistic canvas to represent the effect of Red Bull in a vibrant layered abstract piece. “It has the idea behind the energy. It has the people and how [Red Bull] makes you feel and how it takes your mind into those places when you have a lot of energy and you’re feeling positive,” she says. Ewelina enjoyed the freedom to create what she wanted in the project, and used street art and European culture to inspire her work.

Each artist created a vastly different piece as Red Bull gave no stipulations other than the artist could not cover the front of the cooler. Some created abstract work, while others used graffiti and characters. Each piece said something different about the brand and who each artist is individually. “The concept of Red Bull can be anything,” Ewelina says.

Sean Pettit, On Premise Manager for Red Bull Toronto, says that Red Bull, the artist, and each venue benefit from the project, not just for the event, but in the long term, as these coolers will be permanently situated all over the core of the downtown Toronto art community.

“It’s hard to conceptualize the scope of the project,” he explains. “The success unto itself is spectacular, but I think that the lasting success beyond the work day and the project dates and our release party will be seen.”