If an alien came to Calgary and asked you to show them artwork that represents this city, what would you show? With over 1300 public art pieces around the city, it’s a hard question. But BUMP murals offer some pretty amazing candidates. We’ve mapped 10 murals — a small selection that reflects different moments in Calgary’s history, different styles and communities. Some are familiar landmarks, while others are waiting to be discovered.
These murals aren’t just visually striking: they raise questions and reflect the issues that mattered when they were cre- ated. Most importantly, they carry stories. Years later, those stories become part of Calgary’s history.
PARDNERS
by Jill Stanton, 2018
Where: 17 Ave. S.W.
Pardners is a two-piece mural featuring cowboy boots, created by Edmonton-based artist Jill Stanton. She looked at the side of Gravitypope, a shoe store on 17th Avenue, and did the most Calgarian thing possible: cowboy boots. Two of them, side by side — one in purple and pink, one in red and orange — facing each other like old friends, which is where the title “Pardners” comes from.
Stanton wanted to offer a fresh perspective on the cowgirl aesthetic. “I wanted to give a different take, a different voice, on the femme cowgirl theme with these strong graphic cowboy boots,” she said. The design also draws inspiration from 1970s cowboy fashion.
BLUE BIRD
by DALeast, 2019
Where: 930 15 Ave. S.W.
Prolific Chinese muralist DALeast is known for his distinctive technique — thousands of individual spray-painted lines. These “metal shards” assemble into a bird. Thematically, his work explores the tension between the natural and the artificial, rendering organic forms in fragmented, almost mechanical patterns.
SIMONA LISA
by Alex Kwong, 2020
Where: 1518 7 St. S.W.
This is a story about one artist championing another. In 2020, Alex Kwong — known for capturing the people and places around him — turned his lens on Simone Saunders and her textile work. He photographed her, then composed the mural using the pose and framing of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, swapping in Saunders and her craft as the “modern subject.” At the time, Saunders was fresh out of the Alberta University of the Arts, working out of her home studio. Kwong wanted to support a fellow local artist: “I am also hoping to utilize this opportunity with BUMP to bring attention and support to one of my peers in the Calgary art scene.”
Saunders has since gone on to receive inter- national recognition. This mural is a snapshot of a hometown artist right before the rest of the world caught on.
ALL TOGETHER
by Mono Sourcil, 2020
Where: 119 12 Ave. S.W.
Maxilie Martel, known by her artist name Mono Sourcil, is a young multidisciplinary mural artist from Montreal. Her Calgary piece features a gathering of goofy, oddly lovable monsters and robots, all crowded together on the wall.
“The heteroclite crowd tends to celebrate acceptance and the richness of difference and multiculturalism in a fantastic and playful way,” she said.
A joyful celebration of diversity, and perhaps exactly the kind of optimism people needed after a difficult pandemic year.
VIOLET KING
by Curtia Wright, 2022
Where: 800 block of 12 Ave. S.W.
Violet King was the first Black woman lawyer inCanada. The mural’s artist, Curtia Wright, is a Toronto-based fine artist and arts educator. She chose King not only because of her connection to Alberta (King was born in Calgary), but for her “prevalence as a figure of Canadian history.” She said the mural is intended to be “a memorial and celebration of King’s life and legacy,” with the hope that more people will learn her story simply by walking past it.
STRAIGHT UP (WORLD’S TALLEST MURAL)
by DAIM, 2022
Where: 123 10 Ave. S.W.
Maybe we don’t have the tallest buildings in Calgary, but we have the world’s tallest painted mural. German artist Mirko Reisser (DAIM) created the record-breaking mural Straight Up, which has been in the making for over two years, reaching about 310 ft, 9 inches (95 metres) high. It’s visible from an airplane window on approach into Calgary. BUMP’s president Peter Oliver described the surrounding parkade district as having a “Gotham” feel — all brutalist concrete and spiral ramps. The mural was designed to transform that stark landscape.
BONES OF OUR PAST
by Kalum Teke Dan, 2022
Where: 340 10 Ave. S.W.
Kalum Teke Dan, a self-taught Blackfoot artist from the Blood Tribe (Kainai) in Southern Alberta, creates works that reflect spirituality and the energy around us. His first BUMP mural, Sunset Song, was controversially bricked over by a new development in 2021. The following year, Dan returned with Bones of Our Past at High Park. This piece speaks directly to the history of the residential school system and depicts the survival and strength of Indigenous people.
“This mural … should serve as a reminder of what it really means for all of us to exist on this land, and how much more work there needs to be done for true reconciliation,” he said.
SYMBIOSIS
by Dinho Bento, 2023
Where: 601 10 Ave. S.W.
Brazilian-born, Ottawa-based Dinho Bento created a triptych SYMBIOSIS in an ode to the importance of stewarding our natural world and its inhabitants. The message is explicitly about climate change and the urgency of collective human action — framing animals and people as interconnected rather than separate. The magnificent grey fox, grizzly bear, and eastern cougar appear almost as though they were carved into a living tree. Looking directly at the viewer, they seem to ask us not to forget the planet.
DAYDREAM
by Ben Johnston, 2024
Where: 1269-1315 10 St. S.W.
BUMP partnered with the City of Calgary, Sustainable Calgary, and Bloomberg’s Asphalt Art Initiative to create its first-ever ground mural, painted directly onto the street beside Connaught School. Ben Johnston’s design is text-based and vivid, meant to do double duty: it’s art, but it’s also a traffic-calming tool, mark- ing out a safer, more visible pedestrian zone in a busy part of the Beltline.
THE LOVE OF MUSIC
by Matthew Springer, 2025
Where: 731 10 Ave. S.W.
You may recognize this vibrant mural on the wall of Commonwealth, featuring a joyful marching band made up of colourful characters. Springer created the work as a tribute to the community that gathers at the venue — “a magical place where creatures and folks of all kinds come together for the universal love of great music.” The bright colours and playful figures reflect the energy of the venue and Calgary’s local music scene. Sometimes a mural doesn’t need to be complicated — it can be as simple as a celebration of music and the people it brings together. Read more about Commonwealth here.
