Biography

Born in Wisconsin in 1951 and immigrating to Edmonton, Alberta ten years later Larry made his first impact on the art scene by winning a city wide school contest to attend art classes at the Edmonton Art Gallery. There he was taught by the renowned Alberta artist, Sylvain Voyer. Later on in his early twenties Larry would study with two other renowned Alberta artists; Harry Savage and family friend Harry Wohlfarth.

In 1966 his family moved to Dacca, East Pakistan where for the next two years he learned to play the sitar. He met Ravi Shankar in Calcutta, and would later meet up with him whenever he toured western Canada. In 1971 back in Edmonton Larry opened for British rock group, Procol Harum the night they recorded their platinum selling LP, Procol Harum – Live with the Edmonton Symphony. As well he composed musicals, was a resident music director at the Citadel Theatre, recorded music for several children’s albums and toured North America with the Canadian Rock Opera’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music (french horn and composition) from the U of A while earning his tuition playing guitar and singing in rock bands and composing music for theatre and film.

Then in 1976 he was off to Brandeis University near Boston, Massachusetts to get a Master’s Degree in Acting, culminating in a stint at the famous off-off Broadway theatre, Café LaMama, NYC. Larry’s first major film acting role was in the Canadian classic, The Hounds of Notre Dame, which was followed by roles in two Academy Award winning films; Clint Eastwood’s, Unforgiven and Ang Lee’s, Brokeback Mountain. Over the years Larry has been in dozens of TV series and feature films including a role in the Ridley Scott produced TV mini series, Klondike.

From 1983-85 Larry and wife Tanya Ryga went to live in Mexico and various places throughout South America. It was in Mexico where Larry met and worked with German Expressionist artist Georg Rauch learning to do silk-screen and paint in oil. After returning to Alberta Larry accepted a teaching position in theatre at Red Deer College where he taught acting and directing. In 2001 he and colleague Don Armstrong founded the Motion Picture Arts Program. Keeping up with his painting he took night classes in painting at RDC. Larry has had solo and group exhibitions in Central Alberta including a solo show at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery entitled, Mapping Creativity – A Journey of Transformations. It was at this time that he and filmmaker James Wilson made the feature length documentary film, Mapping Creativity, featuring interviews with various people in the arts and following the creation of a large six by nine foot painting, Guardians of the Sleeping Duck, which is now permanently on display at RDC. In 2013 Larry was a finalist in the Cenovus Art Competition. In 2018 two other large six by nine foot paintings which were painted in collaboration with Guardians of the Sleeping Duck were accepted into the RDC permanent collection.

More recently in 2022, Larry was one of five artists chosen to partake in a Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery (MAG) exhibit entitled, Our West Country - Plein Air Painting in Alberta’s Eastern Slopes, and has his work included in the MAG’s permanent art collection. And although retired from the film industry he returned in September of 2022 to play a supporting role in the Romantic Comedy, Team Bride for Northern Gateway Films.

Larry retired in June of 2018 and is currently painting full time. He and Tanya have three wonderful children, Ivan, Rivera and Jaime, and are now the very proud grandparents of three marvellous girls, Ruby, Violet and Astrid.