ABOUT THE SHOW  /  WORKS  /  LINKS   /  CV

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ABOUT THE SHOW

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is proud to present new drawings by Ed Pien in parallel with the National Gallery of Canada's presentation of his masterwork Ad Infinitum in the exhibition "Shine a Light".

Relinquishing the comforts and habits of the known, his imagery and his processes reveal the risks and rewards of traversing the territory of the unknown. Rather than adopt an illustrative approach, Pien works spontaneously. No preconceived image is held; each line begets the next, necessitating a leap of faith on the part of the artist. The images generated through this organic process capture the immediacy of his linear gestures and the fluidity of his brushwork in a highly expressive visual field. Pien’s imagery conjures a fantastic and disturbing universe. His all-over ink and gouache compositions are brimming with mutant monsters, hybrid creatures and celestial beings — angelic and demonic — summoned from his subconscious. Blue giants, greenhaired witches, menacing night-walkers, shamanistic puppet-players, winged figures with bulging eyeballs, two-headed teddy bears and other similarly tragic Halloween-types inhabit these interior worlds. In each of the artist’s vignettes, an event instigated by one of the antagonists unfolds before the viewer, the activities often carrying on beyond the edges of the paper. Allusions to various forms of social transgression and power imbalances persist, accentuating the vulnerability of the body and the psyche. Playful, provocative, sensual and sinister, Pien’s drawings elicit and mirror the anxieties, fears and desires that issue from the depths of our being. - Carolyn Bell Farrell

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Ed Pien is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. Pien has exhibited nationally and internationally including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Drawing Centre, New York; Museum of Art and Design, New York; Centro Nacional é las Artes, Mexico City; the Goethe Institute, Berlin; Middlesbrough Art Gallery, UK; W139, Amsterdam; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; The Contemporary Art Museum in Monterrey, Mexico; Bluecoat, Liverpool; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and La Biennale de Montreal 2000 and 2002 and recently at the Moscow Bienale (2013), Sydney Biennale (2012) and in the Oh Canada exhibition at MassMoca. His ambitious large-scale installations, drawings and paper cuts are featured in the permanent collections of many Canadian museums including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

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WORKS

(click on images below for larger view, please ensure browser pop-up blockers are disabled)

Strangers in a Strange Land 2005-2015 ink and gouache on paper 194 x 299 cm. (76.5" x 118")

Bad Blood 2011 ink and gouache on paper 81.4 x 107.2 cm (32.25" x 42.25")		First Encounter 2011 ink and gouache on paper 81.4 x 107.2 cm (32.25" x 42.25")		Collision 2011 ink and gouache on paper 82.5 x 108 cm (32.25" x 42.25")		Blood Red 2011 ink and gouache on paper 81.4 x 107.2 cm (32.25" x 42.25")

Purgatory 2011 ink and gouache on paper 81.4 x 107.2 cm (32.25" x 42.25")		Collateral Damage 2011 ink and gouache on paper 81.4 x 107.2 cm (32.25" x 42.25")

Intertwine 2015 ink and gouache on paper 29.5 x 46 cm (11.5" x 18.25")		Mist 2015 ink and gouache on paper 29.5 x 46 cm (11.5" x 18.25")		The Dance 2015 ink and gouache on paper 29.5 x 46 cm (11.5" x 18.25")		Blue Sunflower 2015 ink and gouache on paper 29.5 x 46 cm (11.5" x 18.25")

Climber 2015 ink and gouache on paper 29.5 x 46 cm (11.5" x 18.25")

Amsterdam Suite: Cannibals and Other Beeings 1999-2002 249 x 179 cm (98" x 70.5") 36 pinned drawings

Willow 2015 55.9 x 38.1 cm (22" x 15") water-cut aluminium edition of 7		Pursuit 2015 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22” x 28”) water-cut aluminium edition of 7

Singing Sands 2014 HD video 7 min. 20 s

For more available works by Ed Pien please click here.

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LINKS

- Ed Pien's page on the PFOAC website
- Ed Pien's artist website
- Jérôme Delgado, " Au Belgo s’exposent trois artistes poussés par le soulèvement culturel " , Le Devoir, January 31, 2015

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ARTIST'S C.V.

click here to download the Ed Pien's recent C.V.