Artist Talk with Ed Pien

This conversation with Toronto based artist Ed Pien took place in October 2020 as part of our membership program. Pien's large scale papercut Twelve is part of our permanent collection and is currently on display at the gallery as part of Celebrating the AGGV Collection. This work was acquired after he took part in the exhibition Traces back in 2013 at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The exhibition looked at how drawing can exist beyond an intimate scale and the two dimensional realm as shown through Pien’s rope drawing and immersive cut mylar installation. Pien starts off his talk speaking to his works from 2013 and goes on to share what he has been working on since. That is a body of work that is continuously engaged with our humanity and how that can be expressed through a range of media, context and scale.

Twelve, 2012, ink on cut 3M film, laminated on Kegon paper, 2.4 x 3.6 m, Photo courtesy of the artist.

Ed Pien is a Canadian artist based in Toronto. He has been making art for over nearly 30 years. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of eleven. Pien has shown extensively, both nationally and internationally, in venues that include the Drawing Centre, NYC: the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Canadian Culture Centre in Paris; The Goethe Institute in Berlin; The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; The Art Gallery of Ontario; Musée des beaux arts, Montreal; Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal; Songzhuang Art Centre, Beijing; the National Art Gallery of Canada; as well as Oboro. He has participated in the 2000 and 2002 Montreal Biennales; the 18th Edition of the Sydney Biennale, “Oh Canada”, at MASS MoCA. Pien also presented work at the 5th Edition of the Moscow Biennale, and the Beijing International Art Biennale. The Corridor of Rain is featured at the Curitiba Biennial, in Brazil till February 2018. His work is collected widely and include FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; The National Art Gallery of Canada; Art Gallery of Ontario; Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal. Musée des beaux arts, Montreal; Mendel Art Gallery; Weatherspoon Art Museum, University Of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina; as well as other institutions and private collections. Pien teaches part-time at the University of Toronto.

https://www.edpien.com/

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is located on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, today known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live and learn on this territory.