Gary Taxali is a Canadian contemporary fine artist and illustrator known for his iconic retro style pop art and illustrations. Taxali creates mixed-media works on paper, sculptures, drawings and paintings. His work intersects fine art, pop culture, design and 1930s style iconography, graphics and typography. He is inspired by vintage comics, pop culture and period advertisements. Gary Taxali tweaks conventional styling and contexts to cast light on life’s constant paradoxes, whether sex, love, consumer frenzy, or just that longing for something else. Taxali delves into the desires, feelings and emotional preoccupations that make us all human. He employs humour, emotions and relatable imagery creating narratives on the banality and idiosyncracies of everyday life which he describes as his “preoccupation of constant paradoxes such as human relationships, love, isolation […] economic despair and frustration.” Taxali characters are a common theme and reappear in his work, including his iconic toy monkey and Oh No and Oh Oh characters which have also been created into designer collectible toys. He graduated from OCAD University. Gary is recognized as one of the top 100 illustrators in the world in “100 Illustrators” by art book publisher Taschen (2017). He has been teaching at OCAD University since 2003 and is currently tenured faculty at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada holding the rank of full Professor. Gary’s body of work encompasses a broad spectrum of media and appears in many forms. This includes public and private galleries and museums, leading international magazines, publications, merchandise (products, posters, designer toys, fashion accessories, coins, etc.), books and public installations in the art, design and experiential realms. He has worked with media outlets and publications, including Rolling Stone, GQ, Newsweek, the New York Times and MTV. Other clients include Time, Fortune, The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company, Reader’s Digest, Business Week, Warner Bros., LA Times, Paramount Pictures, The Gap, Harry Rosen, Chapters Indigo, Converse, Levi’s, Sony, McSweeny’s, MTV, Coca-Cola.