He had his 1st solo show months before he died. Now, friends are making sure his art lives on

Jos Theriault had just turned 40 when he passed away from diabetic ketoacidosis last June. 

The Toronto-based artist was known for his collage work, recycling used materials and moulding them into vibrant landscapes and portraits. His images — slightly distorted or blurry — resemble a recollection or a memory of the figures and locations depicted. Despite years of practice, the artist had just received his first solo exhibition in February 2024, shortly before his death.

Upon the shock of their friend's passing, artist Shaheer Zazai and curator Sayem Khan contacted Jos' younger sister, Nancy, to discuss giving Jos' art another showing. The result is the exhibition Fragments of Memory, a showcase of Jos' work at the Toronto art fair, Artist Project, this weekend. It is just the second time Artist Project has featured an artist's work posthumously.

Nancy still has one of Jos' first drawings, a Ninja Turtle from 1990. He was drawn to comic books, she says, and had an interest in art from a young age. He eventually moved from New Brunswick, where he was born and raised, to Toronto to attend the University of Toronto. But the traditional course work was not for him. He then took illustration at OCAD University. 

"His style is different," Nancy shares. "It's not typical drawings of individuals or things. He would get critiqued by his teachers, which he always found hard." He completed his schooling and graduated in 2015.

Nancy described Jos as a "starving artist" in Toronto. He was interested in the idea of repurposing materials and reducing waste for environmental purposes, but also as a means to save money during difficult times, which were impacted by the cost of his medication.

Memory has always been important for Jos' art. He used to do line drawings of "memorable Torontonians," sketching interesting people from memory and posting the portraits on Instagram. 

He's perhaps best known, however, for his mixed-media works. Jos would painstakingly layer strips of dried acrylic paint to recreate landscapes of spaces in Toronto based on his memories. "Some of these pieces took months and years to make," Nancy says. It's some of these works that will be on display at Artist Project, where all proceeds from their sales will go to help OCAD University students experiencing financial difficulty. 

Jos' friend Shaheer is an artist represented by the gallery Patel Brown. He currently splits his time between Toronto and Cyprus. Shaheer and Jos both went to OCAD, but they became close through the art scene and shared a studio space on Rogers Road. During the pandemic lockdowns, the pair were in each other's "bubble," making them family, Shaheer says. 

Following Jos' death, some friends and local artists held a small memorial at the Rogers Road studio, which Nancy attended. Afterward, Shaheer felt Jos' work deserved to be mounted again. Having shown previously at Artist Project, he reached out to organizers with the idea. " To me, it was not right for the paintings — and where he had reached in his practice — to just end there," Shaheer says. "I wanted his practice to live on and continue to where it was headed. His work should have been shown more and I feel like he was at the cusp of that." 

Sayem worked with Jos at Patel Brown. He was a sales associate, while Jos was lead technician and registrar. Sayem had a brotherly bond with him, which grew as they spent time together outside of the gallery. He was often taken aback by Jos' artwork, he says. He was especially impressed with the carvings he made in linoleum to turn into prints. 

Although Sayem has taken a lead role in organizing the showcase, he says many people in the community who were touched by Jos' work are helping to put the exhibition together. "This is a very collective effort. I love to think that Jos would've been so warmed and so happy knowing that so many people were willing to do so much for him. Artist Project feels like a really great venue to show and highlight his work." 

Shaheer shares that Jos was always quiet and reserved, but echoes Sayem's feelings that Jos was extremely connected to his community.

Jos was diagnosed with diabetes at 16 years old. Nancy recalls that her brother chose to work at Starbucks for the medical benefits, which helped cover the cost of insulin. After the pandemic, when the coffee chain closed many locations, Jos was impacted and lost his insurance. As a result, he worked multiple jobs to make ends meet while trying to pay for his life-saving medication.

"He had to make some choices in his life," Nancy says. "'Do I pay for a meal today or do I pay for my insurance today?' I know at the very end, he really was making the decision between picking his insulin or skipping his medication." 

When Jos passed away, Nancy asked the coroner to check when he had last used his glucose monitor. It had been weeks.

Jos created art around his illness. On a 2010 self-portrait that shows him administering an insulin injection, Jos wrote: 

"Dear Diabetes, I have a high blood sugar reading. It only says HI on my glucometer, no actual number reading. And my foot hurts. It's my left foot, it's swollen from standing for so long at work. Anyway my foot is in pain, I wonder where the inflamed pressure points connect through my body, a disease temple all of its own. But I'm so very happy to be alive, I've accepted death as a part of life, someday… Probably by you Diabetes, but I'm okay. It's painful, all of it, but I am strong. I can't wait for a cure, but that's unlikely. I look forward to the day with 14,534 insulin injections behind me. Love life, Jos Theriault." 

Nancy estimates Jos would have been close to that number of insulin injections when he passed.

One of his last artworks is a sculpture of his feet made from spray foam. Jos was going to add many needles pricking the feet to show the impact diabetes has on an individual. But the work remains unfinished. "It was one of the pieces that got left behind," Nancy says.

She describes Jos as a "gentle giant." Many of his friends have called her to share how kind her brother was throughout his life. The sentiment is echoed by Sayem, who admires how Jos solved problems, brought artist's visions to life and passed this knowledge to those around him. 

Through the exhibit, Sayem hopes people get a sense of Jos' "warm and inquisitive spirit" and consider how we can work harder to allow people to live gracefully. Shaheer hopes Jos is proud of his own work, and feels that as long as Jos' work lives on, so too does he. 

Artist Project runs May 8-11 at the Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto.