Pierre Coupey was raised and educated in Montreal. He graduated from Lower Canada College and received his BA from McGill University, and then studied drawing at the Académie Julian and printmaking at the Atelier 17 in Paris. He received his MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and a Certificate in Printmaking from the Art Institute, Capilano University.
He was a founding Co-editor of The Georgia Straight and the founding Editor of The Capilano Review. His work has received awards, grants, and commissions, including grants from the Conseil des Arts du Québec, the Canada Council, and the British Columbia Arts Council. He has been a faculty member of the English Department at Capilano University since 1970, where he continues to teach, when invited, since retiring in 2003.
He has published several books of poetry, chapbooks and catalogues, and exhibited in solo and group shows nationally and internationally. A major show of his work, Notations 1994-1998, took place at the Canadian Embassy Gallery in Tokyo in 1998 (curator Paula Gustafson, catalogue). His work is represented in private, corporate, university and public collections, including those of the Burnaby Art Gallery, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Kamloops Art Gallery, Simon Fraser University Art Gallery, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
His latest show of paintings and work on paper at Gallery Jones, Between Memory and Perception, ran through September 2010, followed by another solo show of photowork and paintings in November, Projects, at the Capilano University Art Gallery. His work was recently exhibited in a five-person show on abstraction, The Point Is: Pierre Coupey/Landon Mackenzie/Martin Pearce/Bernadette Phan/Bryan Ryley, curated by Liz Wylie at the Kelowna Art Gallery (catalogue). His next solo show at Gallery Jones takes place in Fall 2012. The West Vancouver Museum and the Art Gallery at the Evergreen Cultural Centre are co-curating a three-decade survey, with catalogue, for Spring 2013.