"Most of us tend to see water as a material, over here, over there, a cloud, a splash, or ice, yet we are intimately enmeshed with it. And because it is within and around us, do we feel because it feels, and do we act because it acts? As much as we try to define water, it will never be entirely knowable. We need to revel in its mysteries as well as embrace moments of wonder and enchantment water offers.
Our thirty-plus-year friendship began in Ottawa at the Canada Council Art Bank jury of works on paper in 1992. Initially struck by the coincidences of our respective choices of artworks, we have since found our own work discussed, curated, and collected by a range of like-minded critics, curators, and collectors. Our time spent together over this period, sharing meals, homes, and studio talk, has fostered a bond that includes our partners, our aesthetics, our concerns, as well as our demons. That said, it is only recently and with our discussion on water, with its ever-changing form, as well as its political and environmental ramifications, has surfaced at the confluence for our practices. The works selected for this exhibition span the range of media and materials for which we have been recognized. We were not aware of all of each other’s works, and only in hindsight have selected works that called and responded to each other." François Morelli* and Ed Pien
Bios of the artists
François Morelli* was born in Montreal in 1953. In 1975, he completed a BFA in painting and drawing at Concordia University. He worked and exhibited at the Don Stewart Gallery from 1975 to 1981 and helped found the artist-run exhibition space Articule in 1979-80. He taught at Université du Québec à Chicoutimi in 1981. From 1981 to 1991, he lived in the New York City area, earning an MFA in installation and performance art in 1983 from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He taught at Rutgers from 1983 to 1990, and at the City University of New York and the State University of New York in Manhattan between 1985 and 1990. Upon returning to Quebec in 1991, he taught at Université du Québec à Trois- Rivières until 1996. Since 1996, he has taught at Concordia University, where he has headed the DLD (Drawing Lab Dessin) with Eric Simon since 2012. Among other honours, he received the Excellence Award at the Biennale du dessin, de l’estampe et du papier in Alma, Quebec, in 1997 and the Louis-Comtois Award from the City of Montreal in 2007. He is currently participating in La Manif d'art Biennale in Quebec City.
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. His work was featured in the Canadian Biennale of the National Gallery of Canada in 2011 and 2015. La Poste (Montreal) organized a major solo exhibition by Ed Pien with catalog in 2018, and the Art Gallery of Ontario presented a solo exhibition entitled "Past/Future" in 2022-2023.
*François Morelli's participation is a collaboration between PFOAC and the gallery representing him, Chiguer Art Contemporain. To this effect, we would like to thank Abdelilah.
Ed Pien thanks
François Morelli
Diane Charbonneau
Bonnie Baxter
Michel Beaudry
Johannes Zits
The Reach Gallery Museum
Deer Lake Artist Residencies
Burnaby Art Gallery
City of Burnaby
Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
Musée d’art de Rouyn-Noranda
