Artist Statement
Pascale Jean (b. 1999) is a French-Canadian artist based in Montreal. Working in oil painting and papier-mâché sculpture, she constructs psychologically charged narratives, heavily influenced by her upbringing in the northern forests of the Fjord-du-Saguenay. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Japan, Canada, France, and Mexico, and presented by recognized organizations including Hyperallergic and CBC Arts.
Jean explores psychological discomfort through the lens of play. Drawing from diaristic archives and influenced by Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, she adopts play as both method and strategy, transforming intimate memory into hyperbolic visual fictions.
Her compositions oscillate between attraction and unease. Hypersaturated color, bodily distortion, and recurring insect motifs destabilize perception, inviting viewers into intermediary spaces where intimacy becomes public and beauty turns unsettling. Through this tension, Jean interrogates resilience, resistance, and the social dimensions of discomfort.
Portrait by Rubén Garay
Email : contact[at]pascalejeanstudio.com
Curriculum Vitae
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Jeu d'Ego - Maison de la Culture Marie-Uguay - Montreal, Canada
2025 Cucas Vienen de Noche - Casa Lü Sur - Mexico City, Mexico
2024 Women, Mukade, and Little Deaths - Studio Kura Gallery - Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
2022 Critique sur l’Anthropocène - La Galerie d’Art du Cégep de Jonquière – Jonquière, Canada
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Nuit Blanche – Aussenwelt – Montreal, Canada
2025 Traces & Returns - JANO Gallery – Montreal, Canada
2025 Festival Hors Service - Ateliers 3333 – Montreal, Canada
2025 Foire Parallèle - Art fair, presented by Croyds Gallery – Montreal, Canada
2024 Soft Bodies, Hard Gaze (duo ) - Good Sport Gallery - London, Canada
2021 New and Noteworthy - Ho Tam Press – Vancouver, Canada
2021 The Show - The Elbow Gallery – Vancouver, Canada
RESIDENCIES
2025 JANO Gallery - Montreal, Canada (6 months)
2025 Casa Lü Sur - Mexico City, Mexico (1 month)
2024 Aussenwelt.co at l'Union Française de Montréal - Montreal, Canada (3 months)
2024 Studio Kura - Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan (1 month)
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 Diploma of College Studies (DEC) - Visual Arts - CEGEP de Jonquière
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
2019 Brissenden Scholarship
NOTABLE COLLECTIONS
2024 La Distillerie du Fjord, Saint-David-de-Falardeau, Canada
SELECTED PRESS
2025 Ryan Alexander Diduk for Niche Montreal, « The Immediate Data of Consciousness »
2025 Noémi Lincourt for Narcity
2025 Lea Collins for CBC Arts, " June logo is a last ‘symbolic’ collab with the late artist, Preston Buffalo "
2025 Claire-Marine Beha, for Sous La Fibre " Être artiste sur les réseaux sociaux : comment concilier création et promotion? "
2024 Abstract State - November Publication
2024 Grace Qiu for Verdant Journal - Spring-Summer 24
2024 Lakshmi Rivera Amin for Hyperallergic " A View From the Easel "
2024 Suboart Magazine Nr23 - p.124-125
2018 DUSFRENE, Jacques for Ici Radio-Canada – Boulevard du Pacifique
COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
2025 CBC Art – June Logo 2025 - Toronto, Canada
2024 Artch & Céline Bureau – Art Critique – Montreal, Canada
2020 Eitel Studio at L'ENSBA – Confinement Solidaire charity auction for ADSF – Paris, France
SELECTED TALKS
2024 Studio Kura – Artist Speaker – Itoshima, Japan
2022 Cégep de Jonquière – Artist Speaker – Jonquière, Canada
2021 Cégep de Jonquière – Artist Speaker – Jonquière, Canada