In the studio of… Alain and Agathe Piroir | Print artists, father and daughter

Work and exhibition space devoted to printed art for 26 years, the Atelier Piroir publishes prints, creates artists’ books and exhibits the works of engravers. The Press met its founder, Alain Piroir, and his partner, his daughter Agathe, in their offices in Mile End where they work, in collaboration with around fifty visual artists and around forty poets.

Eric Clement
The Press

Martin Tremblay
The Press

Historical

An engraver by training, Alain Piroir settled in Quebec in the mid-1990s after studying fine arts in France and solid experience as a printer acquired in Parisian workshops. He had worked there with notable artists such as Francis Bacon, Roberto Matta or Max Ernst. For her part, Agathe Piroir learned printing techniques from her father. She first worked in New York for renowned artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Kiki Smith before joining Atelier Piroir in 2006 and creating an exhibition gallery there.

This is the printing, in 1995, of the artists’ book The circus – 12 original engravings by Jean Paul Riopelle associated with 6 texts by Gilles Vigneault – which marked the beginning of Alain Piroir’s career in Quebec. “In 1994, I contacted Louis-Pierre Bougie at the Lacourière-Frélaut studio in Paris,” he says. He advised me to contact Atelier Circulaire, in Montreal, in case they needed a printer. That’s how I met Riopelle through a book project by publisher Michel Tétreault. We then set up a workshop in L’Isle-aux-Grues, transferring a Ledeuil press there, and the work lasted six months! Afterwards, it took us a year and a half to print everything! »

The workshop

In his studio, Alain Piroir began by working with intaglio engraving, or intaglio. He later expanded his practice to relief printmaking, polymer plate letterpress, stone lithography and photogravure. Atelier Piroir is a veritable museum of printing presses. Machines that mostly come from Europe. Some date from the 19th^and century and one, almost 300 years. “Disassembled, they crossed the Atlantic in containers,” says Agathe Piroir.

Alain and Agathe Piroir have very close relationships with the artists in their studio. “We are in the proximity when we do the tests, the choice of colors, says Agathe Piroir. We are in the intimacy of the artist at the level of his creation. “The most interesting thing is when the artist gives us great freedom, as with Lucie Jolicoeur Côté,” says Alain Piroir.

The artists

When The Press went to the studio, Alain and Agathe Piroir were working on the artists’ book by poet Joséphine Bacon and engraver Terry Randy Awashish, which will be launched soon. A project that promises to be splendid. It’s an art to think about every detail so that the result is optimal. Atelier Piroir also received the Saint-Denys Garneau international prize in 2021, in recognition of the quality of its artists’ books. No offense to the Society for the Development of Cultural Enterprises (SODEC) which does not consider the Piroirs as artists, but as “technicians”, regrets Agathe Piroir.

Among the artists working with Atelier Piroir is Hélène Latulippe, who is presenting her works there now and until February 5. And others such as Jean-Michel Cropsal, Jo Ann Lanneville, Pierre Durette, Guillaume Brisson-Darveau, Lucie Jolicoeur Côté or Stephanie Russ, who will exhibit there at the end of 2022. Note that visual artist Ed Pien and l Writer Katia Grubisic will also launch an artist’s book there in April.

The Atelier Piroir also welcomes an artist in residence after each Biennale internationale d’estampe contemporaine de Trois-Rivières. The latest is Céline Huyghebaert, winner of the Governor General’s Prize in 2019, who will do a creative residency there in the spring before exhibiting there later.

The future

The engraving market is small in Quebec. Also, Agathe Piroir travels to international fairs such as Codex, in California, or Art on Paper, in New York. Atelier Piroir is a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association, a group of print art specialists who attract passionate collectors. “In the United States, I know practically all the major collectors of artists’ books! “, she says, before slipping that she does not understand why, in Quebec, the Association of contemporary art galleries refuses that Atelier Piroir participates in the Paper Fair. “However, we make paper every day and we are a contemporary art gallery,” says Alain Piroir.

The Piroir gallery wants to promote burst, daring engraving. Next summer, she will exhibit the works of Johny Ngbwa, a 26-year-old artist of Cameroonian origin who lives in Italy and creates linocuts. Agathe Piroir plans to have a more visible gallery than it currently is, on the eighth floor of a building. As for Alain Piroir, he dreams of exhibiting some of the thousands of works produced in the studio in a museum. “To show the different techniques, because they’re always different worlds, even if it’s created the same way,” he says.

Agathe Piroir is determined to keep the workshop going when her father retires. But Alain Piroir, aged 71, is in no hurry! “I’ve already told Agathe not to worry if one morning she finds me between two presses! he said. Printed art is my life. I’ve been on vacation for 50 years! »

The photo gallery