Cecil Klassen &
Jason Gillis

Cecil Klassen is a multidisciplinary artist from Tillsonburg, Ontario and a recent graduate of the Fanshawe Fine Art program. In 2023, he was the recipient of the Mackie Cryderman Award for Excellence in the Arts and the James MacNeill Award for Emerging Artists.

Labor-intensive, highly detailed and small-scale works aim to explore our relationships with the natural world. Primarily working with printmaking and sculpture, his work explores the intersections between art and science. Fueled by obsessive research and a love for mycology, Cecil draws inspiration from early scientific illustrations, biological oddities, and foraging.

You can follow Cecil’s work on Instagram at: @c.v.klassens



Jason Gillis is from Woodstock, Ontario. He is a recent graduate of the Fanshawe Fine Art program, a recipient of the Tony McAuley award for his community focus and passion for art in the program, and a sculptor with a focus on the macabre. His work toes the line between playful and grotesque, invoking morbid curiosity. This comes from a long-term fascination with death as well as a deep love for the horror genre.

His work focuses on laborious and physical processes such as hand sewing, pushing materiality and texture, and leaving visible seams, as well as traces of the way he works in the art. Hand sewing as opposed to machine sewing directly references the sewing of flesh, as we don't use machines to sew up wounds.

You can follow Jason’s work on Instagram at: @heartfeltbug