Assignment 2

 Assignment 2

Ed Pien

This week's assignment was to find a contemporary artist, currently living, who's work I find both conflicting and pleasing. I can safely say that Ed Pien is that artist. Ed Pien's art is difficult to understand, describe, and think about, but I find it beautiful, conflicting, and interesting, which seems to be the point.

After observing some of his work, I believe that Ed Pien's art seems to be made with the intention of bringing together many conflicting elements into one piece. There are human figures with monstrous qualities, realistic figures blended with fantastical proportions and colors, giving it a whimsical quality, then conflicting that whimsy with dark iconology, with figures twisted, malformed, and, in some cases, sexualized. The art seems to be embodying all kinds of definite human imagery, while remaining ambiguous. The result is art that is chaotic, calming, uneasy, monstrous, frightening, childlike, and consistently engaging. It challenges me to keep looking at his art to look for new details with every observation.

The first two artpieces below (In order of appearance, top to bottom: "The Scream", "The Great Storm") demonstrate the usual quality of his work.




"The Scream", Ed Pien and Samonie Toonoo,  https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/exhibition/scream-ed-pien-samonie-toonoo/ .

"The Great Storm", 2016, etching, aquatint, and silkscreen, 78.1 x 107 cm,  https://www.pfoac.com/artists/40-ed-pien/works/2626-ed-pien-the-great-storm-2016/ .


Ed Pien also has art pieces that have taken some inspiration from the ocean, embodying an uncertain, unknowable quality, while also keeping that special, chaotic feature that Pien utilizes in all of his art. This can be seen with the next two pieces (Sea Dogs 1 and Primordial Soup). From these, it can be observed that Pien has experimented with a variety of materials in order to create this chaotic quality in his art.



"Sea Dogs 1", 2012, Ink on paper, 42.5 x 54, The Living Sea Series, https://www.pfoac.com/artists/40-ed-pien/works/632-ed-pien-sea-dogs-1-2012/ . 

"Primordial Soup", collaboration with Caribbean Sea water, ink and pencil crayon on 3M reflective film laminated on shoji, mounted on board, 38.1 x 50.8 cm, Shimmering Seas Series, https://www.pfoac.com/artists/40-ed-pien/works/5492-ed-pien-primordial-soup/ .




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