Since the mid '80s, René Pierre Allain has been making constructed paintings, which he has presented internationally for over thirty years.
He studied photography at Loyola of Montreal and worked as a professional photographer until age 27 when, acknowledging his need for a more hands on form of expression, he pursued studies in fine arts, specifically in sculpture. After moving to New York in 1984, he received a MFA from Hunter College.
His sculptures gradually moved from the floor to the wall, as Allain grew more interested with issues of painting. Rather than painting in the traditional manner, he worked on sheet metal, utilizing chemicals and acids and the flame from a torch to transform the surface of the metal, which have resulted in a body of work called steel paintings.
Allain's mostly abstract and geometric work takes their inspiration from architecture, heraldry, insignia, disruptive patterns and, most recently, rhythmic patterns.
He divides his time between his studio in Brooklyn, NY and Nova Scotia, where, in a renovated barn, he makes paintings and works on paper. He teaches Drawing and a workshop of his design called Constructed Painting at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
See the review of the Steel Bars exhibition in Whitehot Magazine.
See the interview with Rene Pierre Allain in The New York Observer (page 42).
