ARTIST BIO

Bryan Rapp is a contemporary figurative sculptor, educator, and the Director of the Wallace Master Sculptor Program at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. Rapp was born in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He began his art career in 2020 as a computer animation student in Pittsburgh. From 2024 to 2026, Rapp was an apprentice to sculptor Alan Cottrill in his Ohio studio and foundry, Coopermill Bronzeworks. Since then, Rapp has obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Muskingum University, and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Oklahoma where he studied under Paul Moore from 2013-2016.

From 2016 to 2019, Rapp was the Artist-in-Residence at Coastal Carolina University where he taught students mold-making processes and bronze pouring (Lost Wax Casting) while fabricating a twelve foot tall mascot for the university’s Division I football stadium. This was a labor intensive undertaking, relying on the few dedicated students willing to assist. Two of those students went on to complete their MFA’s, and another currently is employed with a prominent foundry.

In 2019, Rapp joined Brookgreen Gardens, the country’s first public sculpture garden founded in 1931 by sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and her husband, Archer. Today, Brookgreen contains the largest and most comprehensive sculpture collection in the United States. As Director of the Master Sculptor Program, Bryan coordinates educational programming and week long sculpture workshops taught by elite American representational sculptors and medallists such as Paul Moore, Sandy Scott, Eugene Daub, Heidi Wastweet, Richard Blake, Simon Kogan, Rod Zullo, Alicia Ponzio, Jason Arkles, David Simon, Brittany Ryan, Kevin Chambers, Adam Matano, Rick Casali, Susan Wakeen, Wesley Wofford, Paul Rhymer, David Turner, Jerome Ranft, Gary Staab, Chad Fisher, and Stephanie Revennaugh.

Rapp has worked with both public and private collectors, and has exhibited his work nationally. His work has also been featured in Art Cult Studio Magazine, and Blood and Thunder, an arts journal published by the University Of Oklahoma College Of Medicine. In 2018, Rapp’s “Parade of Horribles” won the sculpture division at Artfields, the largest annual art competition and festival in the southeastern United States. In 2022, Rapp was featured on Inside Penguins Hockey for his sculpture of Mike Lange.