 Ed Pien |
By Brittany Neddo
The Visiting Artist Program will continue with its series March 22, welcoming Canadian artist Ed Pien, who creates drawings and drawing installations, to the SUNY Fredonia Campus. The event will take place in 209 McEwen Hall at 8:30 p.m.
Ed Pien was born in Tapei, Taiwan but moved with his parents to Canada at the age of eleven. He has been drawing for over nearly 30 years. Pien earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and his Master of Fine Arts degree from York University located in Toronto.
He currently serves as a part-time professor at the University of Toronto. Over the years he has taught at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Pien has been exhibited nationally and internationally with displayed works at various exhibits such as the Drawing Centre, New York; La Biennale de Montreal in 2000 and 2002; W 139, Amsterdam; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Middlesbrough Art Gallery, United Kingdom; Centro Nacional e las Artest, Mexico City and the National Art Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
In the time of his career, Pien has designed and created an assortment of papercuts, art installations, drawings and video art. His work draws in Eastern and Western influences with many of his inspirations deriving from ghost stories, hell scrolls and the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya. American artist, Kara Walker has also played a crucial role in some of his creations with her work with paper silhouettes focusing on themes of race, gender and sexuality.
The Visiting Artist Series is designed to allow students to experience all sides of the art spectrum by bringing in a wide variety of guests. The events are free and open to the public.
For more information, email Megan Urban or call 716-673-3809.
Edward Pien creates drawings and drawing installations, exploring the concept of fear and vulnerabilities. In his early exhibitions, images of ghosts from different cultures were utilized as metaphor for his themes. Influenced by Freud, Foucault and Lacan, however, Pien has expanded the meaning of his themes to include his recent explorations of power and control. Using images of human/animal hybrids, cannibalism and many other self-inflicted or externally imposed penetrations into flesh, the artist intends not only to refer to his personal fears but also to denote public fears held in the collective memory of a society.
