Bird Game, 2014
18″ x 24″
Water jet-cut aluminum and lacquer, ed 6/7
$3,600
Courtesy Birch Contemporary
Ed Pien
Ed Pien is known for his “cut digital prints”, using various media such as paper, 3M reflective laminate, and in the case of his work for Art Gems, steel. This series of works plays out his fascination with light and shadow, presence and ephemerality. The works celebrate enchantment and imagination; the gestures in each piece enact ambiguous narratives, inviting viewers to participate in formulating their own interpretations of the inexplicable, while variations of depth of field and movement hint at a cinematic experience.
Pien holds a BFA from the University of Western Ontario and an MFA from York University. In the last 30 years, he has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Drawing Centre (New York); the Biennale de Montreal; W139 (Amsterdam); Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver); Middlesbrough Art Gallery (United Kingdom); Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City); The Contemporary Art Museum in Monterrey (Mexico); Goethe Institute (Berlin); Bluecoat (Liverpool); Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto); National Art Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). As an art instructor, Pien has taught at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the Ontario College of Art and Design, and he currently teaches part-time at the University of Toronto. He is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain in Montreal, Galerie Maurits van de Laar in The Hague and Birch Contemporary in Toronto.