Biéler studied at the Institut Technique de Montréal before enlisting in the Canadian Army to fight in World War I. Injured and badly gassed, he returned to Canada in 1919. Returning to Montreal after his study at the New York Art Students League in Woodstock, New York, he met members of the Beaver Hall Group. From 1922 to 1926, Biéler lived primarily in Switzerland, where he apprenticed with his uncle, the painter and muralist Ernest Biéler. He spent several months in Paris at the Académie Ranson under Maurice Denis and held his first solo exhibition in 1924 at the Montreal Art Association. When Biéler returned permanently to Canada in 1926, he became immersed in the Quebec art scene and began a lifelong friendship with Edwin Holgate. His interest in traditional village society led him to settle for three years on the Île d’Orléans, where he began sketching the habitant life. It was during this time that he met A. Y. Jackson. In 1930, Biéler moved back to Montreal and founded, along with John Lyman, the short-lived Atelier art school. He made frequent painting trips to the Laurentians and moved to Saint-Adèle for a year. In 1936, he took up a position as artist-in-residence at Queen’s University, Kingston, where he remained until his retirement in 1963. In 1957 he received the J. W. L. Forster Award from the Ontario Society of Artists. He was awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal and an honorary doctorate, and in 1987 was made a member of the Order of Canada.