Fusions – Reynald Piché

Piché, Reynald (1929-2015) “Fusions” 
Aluminium Chromatic Printing, signed and titled on the reverse
Dimension: 18″ x 14″ 45.7 x 35.5 cm

Painter-sculptor Reynald Piché studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1959 to 1963 and completed a ceramics internship with Gaétan Beaudin in North Hatley. From 1962, he taught visual and plastic arts at Collège de Valleyfield , as well as at the city’s cultural services centre. He was a lecturer at UQAM from 1969 to 1972. During these years, he associated with artists such as Albert Dumouchel and Edmondo Chiodini . In 1973, he became president of the Société des artistes professionnels du Québec (Quebec Society of Professional Artists ).

During his career, Piché created several murals for buildings in Quebec, including a fiberglass mural for a church (1965), a fountain sculpture for the Valleyfield post office , murals for the Dupuis Frères department store (1975), and for the Méridien and Laurentien hotels in Montreal.

In his early career, the artist expressed himself on canvas with pencils and brushes, exploring visual abstraction and playing with light and shadow, and chromatic contrasts. From 1971 onward, he developed his passion for more contemporary surfaces and perfected the aluchromy technique (integrating colored pigments into aluminum), which became his signature. He explored and mastered all facets of aluminum and Plexiglas, resulting in his famous aluchromies, which he exhibited in Paris (1978), London , and Milan .

Around 1976, he abandoned this technique to focus on paper textures—white, packaging, kraft—and latex or oil-based paint pigments. He emphasized the relationships between water, pigments, and the support, concentrating on black and white. From the mid-1980s onward, he explored the new opportunities offered by the world of computing. The artist thus rediscovered vibrant colors and forms. He developed his work in line with the evolving means offered by new technologies, always striving for refinement. Whatever material he used, he always transposed what inspired him, the values ​​dear to him and that surrounded him: nature, water, earth, the sun, and humankind.
He uses digital tools, repurposing software like Photoshop from its original use to create artworks. One constant emerges from his work: light that bursts beyond the frame. Incidentally, the paintings he creates never stop at the canvas’s boundaries. “I always do the same thing,” he says, “but with different means and always with the aim of extracting the essence of poetry, of exploring all facets of sensitivity.”
Works
Reynald Piché’s works, paintings and sculptures, can be found in numerous private and public collections: the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal , the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec , the Musée d’art de Joliette , the Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges , the Université de Montréal , the Université Saint-Paul d’Ottawa , and the Quebec government offices in Paris , London , and Milan . They can also be found at the Hydro-Québec Research Institute in Varennes , at the Complexe Desjardins , at Polytechnique Montréal , as well as at the Hôpital du Suroît in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, the Collège de Valleyfield , and the work Souffle d’Éole, created with Denis Poirier , Place du centenaire in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.

For about ten years, he created the sculpture for the Air Canada Prize at the Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver film festivals.

In December 2009 The Beauharnois-Salaberry MRC established the Reynald-Piché Prize. Accompanied by a $1000 grant, this honorary prize is awarded to an artist or craftsperson who has distinguished themselves during the year in their field of expression and recognizes their work. Reynald Piché became the first recipient of the eponymous prize