Portrait by Rubén Garay
Email : contact[at]pascalejeanstudio.com
Pascale Jean
Pascale Jean's artistic practice offers an analysis of psychological discomfort through a colorful and playful lens. Working with both oil painting and sculpture, Jean investigates visual symbolisms embedded in the social psyche using a pictorial storytelling approach. By the manifestation of tensions between colours and narratives, the viewer is invited to experience offbeat sensory experiences through the contact of her work.
Particularly inspired by linguistic tensions, Jean addresses themes related to resistance and resilience, developed through a deliberately expressive visual language. Investigating discomfort and alienation, Jean extrapolates her research through the narratological approach of the personal diary as a visual archive of elements drawn from her life experiences. Then transformed into complex stories on her canvases and sculptures, these memories take on an inviting colourful aesthetic and simultaneously repel through the vulnerability they emanate, like a perpetual tug-of-war. Building her research in part with Johan Huizinga's writings, specifically Homo Ludens, in which play is considered to be an essential and inseparable element of human development, Jean adopts the terminology of "play" to describe her irreverent approach to examining human malaise.
Play is concretely manifested through the artist's creation of intermediary spaces where art becomes a place of mediation between intimate experience and the outside world. The optical effects of the chosen 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 shift between attraction and discomfort.
In addition to her local and international exhibitions, the artist's work has appeared in award-winning and renowned publications such as Hyperallergic, Suboart Magazine, and Woo Publications. Her work has been covered by CBC, her work has been showcased by, and she has collaborated with CBC Arts, and she contributed with her artistic input and experience to the Quebec contemporary art podcast Sous la Fibre.
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 Ateliers 3333 – Festival Hors Service – Montreal, Canada
2025 Art fair – Foire Parallèle – Montreal, Canada
2025 Aussenwelt – Collective show – Montreal, Canada
2024 Aussenwelt – Exposition Collective – 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 Baccalaureate – Visual Arts – Emily Carr University of Arts + Design - Vancouver, Canada
2020 Exchange Program (spring) – Fine Arts – 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 Aussenwelt - Montreal, Canada
2024 Studio Kura - Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
GRANTS & AWARDS
2024 LOJIQ Action Culturelle et Artistique
2023 LOJIQ Action Culturelle et Artistique
2020 Friends of Emily Carr
2019 Brissenden Scholarship
MEDIAS & PRESS
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)
COLLABORATIVE WORKS
2025 CBC Art – June Logo 2025 - Toronto, Canada
2024 Artch & Céline Bureau – Art Critique – Montreal, Canada
2024 Aussenwelt.co – Art Battle Artist – 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 Online charity auction – Paris, France
2017 Nomad Creative Studio For the 36th edition of the day against violence towards women – Artist Assistant – Jonquière, Canada