Awareness Post
- Dec 19, 2025
- 2 min read
Jacub Gagnon currently lives in Toronto, and he is one of their emerging contemporary artists. He graduated in 2009 from the Ontario College of Art and Design with a BFA. He uses backgrounds of void space to emphasize whimsical representations of native fauna in a surreal aspect that are often placed with man made objects. He does this to tell the story of how the world has such contrasting sides of sweet and disturbing by showing how humans manipulate and borrow from nature. He uses high detail with deep and bright colors to paint the animals in an almost childlike fantasy. This helps to bring attention to the troubling issues that some of these animals face with extension or to their habitat. His pieces have a high level of detail to the animals, and the bright colors draw in your attention. The combinations he creates between animals and man-made objects create an interesting juxtaposition between humanity's impact on nature and animals.
His website: https://jacubgagnonart.com/
Recent CV:
Solo shows
This artist has no solo shows yet.
Group shows
2025
SMOL 2.0, Thinkspace Projects
'PERSEVERANCE: 20 Years of Thinkspace', Thinkspace Projects
2024
Free Shipping 2!, Thinkspace Projects
SMOL, Thinkspace Projects
A Better Tomorrow, Thinkspace Projects
‘Nerdstalgia', Thinkspace Projects
2023
‘LAX / AMS’ Thinkspace x STRAAT, Thinkspace Projects
2022
Habitat, Thinkspace Projects
2019
"La Lune II" Group Exhibition, Haven Gallery
2017
LAX / JFK: curated by Thinkspace, Spoke Art
2013
Mad Hatters - curated by Ixie Darkonn, The Flower Pepper gallery
Link to CV: https://www.artsy.net/artist/jacub-gagnon/cv
I really admire Gagnon's work as I think he does an amazing job at creating highly detailed and realistic animals with a well done surrealist element that makes you look twice. This is similar to what I want to do with my work, so I think I can learn from his style. The way he incorporates man-made elements with animals adds a level of depth to what his commentary on humanity and its effects on nature and animals. While in a lot of his works he focuses on a larger single animal with sometimes including smaller animals, his compositions still have a lot of movement and energy to them which is something I could use in my pieces. I really like how alive his pieces feel which I think is something he accomplishes through the movement I pointed out earlier along with the bright colors he uses. I think those bright colors really bring life to his pieces, and make them very interesting to look at. I want to research more processes on how I can add these sorts of bright colors to my pieces as I think it could overall improve the effect of my pieces. Furthermore if I ever want to do a piece that focuses on a single animal again, I could take a lot of composition tips from him because his compositions are so active despite focusing in on a single subject even if there are some other smaller subjects. Overall, I really like his style and pieces, and I think he is a great artist to learn from.
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