Radical Empathy

A Mid-Exhibition Reflection on the Other & Do Lessard Exhibition

August 12, 2026

For this inaugural exhibition, Étude ultimately offers much more than a meeting between two artists. It invites us to reflect, to observe the world around us, and to rebuild connections: connections with others, with our community, or simply with the strangers we encounter every day. Every form of connection matters.

On view at Étude through August 30, 2026.

Halfway through their inaugural exhibition, which has been extended through August 30, 2026, we’re taking this opportunity to revisit our preliminary discussions with the artists, Other and Do Lessard. From our very first conversations, a common thread emerged: an approach that Do Lessard calls “radical empathy.” It is a way of looking at others without seeking to simplify them, by accepting their contradictions, their flaws, and everything that makes them profoundly human.

At first glance, their approaches and visual languages seem to take opposite paths. Other walks, observes, and absorbs the rhythms of the people he encounters. Distracted glances, anonymous crowds, and ordinary scenes become the subject matter of his works, often with a hint of sociopolitical critique. Do Lessard, on the other hand, starts from within. He often lets his emotions guide the composition of his works until the canvas reveals something about himself that he did not yet know. Yet their practices converge toward a shared refusal: that of freezing the human form.

In both artists’ work, bodies are distorted, overlap, and are in a state of constant flux. Other’s figures bear the issues that haunt us daily, while Do Lessard’s illustrate resilience and interpersonal dilemmas. In both cases, the human becomes the point where the personal meets the collective. Going against the grain of a reality marked by self-centeredness and the pursuit of performance, Other and Do Lessard choose observation and self-reflection.

Radical empathy is far from naive optimism. It involves recognizing that others always elude us a little, and that this is precisely what makes them interesting. In an era where everyone is navel-gazing and spends much of their day with their eyes glued to a screen rather than on the people around them, these works remind us of the importance of seeing things differently.