Portrait by Rubén Garay
Email : contact[at]pascalejeanstudio.com
Pascale Jean
Pascale Jean (b. 1999) is a French-Canadian artist based in Montreal. Her paintings and sculptures, shaped by her childhood spent in the northern forests of the Fjord-du-Saguenay, have been exhibited in Japan, Canada, France, and Mexico. Presented by renowned organizations such as Hyperallergic and CBC Arts, Jean's work and practice has also been supported by LOJIQ and Friends of Emily Carr. Recently, in Montreal, her work was exhibited at the Hors Service Festival, the Maison de la Culture Marie-Uguay, and JANO Gallery.
Jean's artistic practice offers an analysis of psychological discomfort through a colorful and playful approach. Working in oil painting and papier-mâché sculpture, Jean reveals her narrative spirit by exploring symbols rooted in the social psyche. Through the interplay of color and narrative, discomfort becomes a terrain for aesthetic exploration, questioning our relationship to unsettling emotions.
Particularly inspired by linguistic tensions, Jean explores themes of resistance and resilience through a deliberately expressive visual language. Exploring unease, Jean extrapolates her research through the narratological approach of the personal diary as a visual archive. Transformed into hyperbolic stories, these memories take on an aesthetic that is both inviting in its use of color and simultaneously repulsive in its distorted visuals. Johan Huizinga's texts Homo Ludens, which presents play as an essential and inseparable element of human development, inspires Jean to adopt the terminology of "play" to describe her irreverent approach to examining human unease.
Play manifests itself concretely through the creation of intermediary spaces where art becomes a mediating point between intimate experience and the outside world. The optical effects of the saturated colors reinforce the idea of looking at the forbidden, distorting the image as the eye attempts to make sense of it. Hypersaturated colors, references to intimacy, and bodily distortions become tools for deconstructing perceptual norms, inviting the viewer to oscillate between attraction and unease. The omnipresence of insects, meanwhile, cements the anxiety-inducing nature of the narratives and directly connects them to social and cultural contexts.
Curriculum Vitae
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Maison de la Culture Marie-Uguay - Jeu d'Ego - Montreal, Canada
2025 Casa Lü Sur - Cucas Vienen de Noche - Mexico City, Mexico
2024 Studio Kura Gallery – Women, Mukade, and Little Deaths - Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
2022 La Galerie d’Art du Cégep de Jonquière – Critique sur l’Anthropocène – Jonquière, Canada
DUO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Good Sport Gallery – Soft Bodies, Hard Gaze - London, Canada
2018 Francophone Cultural Center – Nouveaux Regards – Vancouver, Canada
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 JANO Gallery – Traces and Returns – Montreal, Canada
2025 Ateliers 3333 – Festival Hors Service – Montreal, Canada
2025 Art fair – Foire Parallèle – Montreal, Canada
2025 Aussenwelt – Collective show – Montreal, Canada
2024 Aussenwelt – Exposition Collective d'Art Visuel et Sonore – Montreal, Canada
2021 Ho Tam Press – New and Noteworthy – Vancouver, Canada
2021 The Elbow Gallery + Online - The Show – Vancouver, Canada
2019 Rennie Hall – SAS – Vancouver, Canada
2019 Private Exhibition – 4Ft Under – Vancouver, Canada
2018 La Galerie d’Art du Cégep de Jonquière – Hue Manos – Jonquière, Canada
2017 Centre National d'exposition – Symposium National d’art Multidisciplinaire - Jonquière, Canada
2017 Jonquière CEGEP Art Gallery – Le livre dans tous ses états – Jonquière, Canada
EDUCATION
2021 Bachelor of Fine Arts with a Major in Visual Arts – Emily Carr University of Arts + Design - Vancouver, Canada
2020 Exchange Program (spring) – Fine Arts – Tim Eitel Studio - École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts - Paris, France
2018 DEC – Visual Arts – Cégep de Jonquière - Jonquière, Canada
RESIDENCIES
2025 JANO Gallery - Montreal, Canada
2025 Casa Lü Sur - Mexico City, Mexico
2024 Studio Kura - Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
GRANTS & AWARDS
2024 Action Culturelle et Artistique - Awarded by LOJIQ for the Soft Bodies, Hard Gaze duo exhibition in London, Canada
2023 Action Culturelle et Artistique - Awarded by LOJIQ for the Studio Kura residency, in Itoshima, Japan
2020 Friends of Emily Carr - Awarded by Emily Carr University to students demonstrating exceptional dedication and promise
2019 Brissenden Scholarship - Awarded by Emily Carr University to students demonstrating promise in Visual Arts
MEDIAS & PRESS
2025 DIDUK, Ryan Alexander, for Niche Montreal, « The Immediate Data of Consciousness » Sunday, December 7th, 2025
2025 NEATBY, Gabrielle, for Nouvelles d’ici, « Traces et retours à Verdun : une exposition des 4 artistes en résidence à la galerie JANO » Friday, December
5th, 2025
2025 LINCOURT, Noémi, for Narcity, " 6 musées et expositions à Montréal que tu peux visiter GRATUITEMENT en novembre 2025 ", Monday, November
3rd, 2025
2025 COLLINS, Lea for CBC Arts, " June logo is a last ‘symbolic’ collab with the late artist, Preston Buffalo ", Monday, June 2nd, 2025
2025 BEHA, Claire-Marie, for Sous La Fibre, “ Être artiste sur les réseaux sociaux : comment concilier création et promotion? ” Friday, January 31st, 2025
2024 ISSUE 3 - Abstract State (November 2024 Publication, New York, USA)
2024 Summer '24 - Verdant Journal (October 2024 Publication) Wednesday October 2nd, 2024 (Toronto, CA)
2024 RIVERA AMIN, Lakshmi for Hyperallergic - Thursday August 8th, 2024 (New York, USA)
2024 Nr.23 – Suboart Magazine (May 2024 Publication) - p.124-125
2023 NICHOLE BROOKS, Kelsey for My Friend Frankie – “Feature Pascale Jean” Friday September 1st , 2023 (Montreal, CA)
2021 The Lonely Hour – Woo Publications (Some Time(s) April Publication) - p.44-45
2021 RANDALL, Meghan for Woo Publication – “Faces of Emily Carr” Tuesday March 2nd, 2021
2020 Midnight Snack - Woo Publications (Space(s) December Publication) - p.24
2019 One Could Have Been Enough - Woo Publications (Extra December Publication) - p.5
2019 Embouteillage - Woo Publications (Leak April Publication) - p.6
2018 Life Line - Woo Publications (Unbound December Publication) - p. 18-19
2018 DUSFRENE, Jacques for Ici Radio-Canada – Boulevard du Pacifique – “Exposition Regard au Centre Culturel Francophone” Wednesday November 7th,
2018 (Vancouver, CA)
COLLABORATIONS
2024 - Ongoing Aussenwelt - Art collective - Montreal, Canada
2025 CBC Art – June Logo 2025 - Toronto, Canada
2024 Artch & Céline Bureau – Art Critique – Montreal, Canada
2024 Studio Kura – Artist Speaker – Itoshima, Japan
2022 Cégep de Jonquière – Artist Speaker – Jonquière, Canada
2021 Cégep de Jonquière – Artist Speaker – Jonquière, Canada
2020 Eitel Studio – Confinement Solidaire charity auction for ADSF – Paris, France
2017 Nomad Creative Studio For the 36th edition of the day against violence towards women – Artist Assistant – Jonquière, Canada