Sylvain Prévost Gagné, known by his artist name as simply “Sy”, is the quintessential multidisciplinary creative soul. Not even a global pandemic could stop this Mount-Royal resident from reinventing himself and his work, coming full circle in 2020 to create themed pieces that revolve around pop culture from his youth.

But his trajectory from budding child artist to the multidisciplinary master that he is today is anything but a straight line. A true creative explorer, Sy has had a prolific 25-year career to date and shows no signs of stopping the expedition.

Sy got an early start as an artist. He began doing portraits at nine years old, inspired by his older brother who was also talented, and eventually began garnering attention from friends, family and the general public. Over the next few years, between the ages of 10 and 12, Sy was commissioned to paint a variety of pop culture themes on different mediums, from mirrors to jean jackets. “It was that early encouragement [from friends and family] that I attribute to my success,” he says.

The young multi-talented Sy didn’t stop there. His post-secondary studies took him through a variety of creative industries and employment fields, such as commercial arts, television and film production, creative writing, and sculpting.

His talents have allowed him to work with major players such as Revlon, Molson, the NFB, CBC, TVA, and RDS, just to name a few. In 2012 he was commissioned to reproduce the trophy of the Gala Artis for TVA for the red-carpet portion of the awards show. Sy’s evolution as an artist has also shouldered with entrepreneurship. He has self-published a series of children’s short story colouring books and has been a silent partner in few other non-artist businesses as well.

Having worked almost exclusively on commissioned pieces of various mediums over the years, 2020 saw Sy pivot toward a series of un-commissioned works: a return to painting and writing. He is currently featured in two different art galleries in Quebec: L’Esprit Créatif Art Gallery in Vieux Quebec and Le HangArt Saint-Denis in Montreal.

Even if the pandemic has challenged the art and entertainment industry, Sy is able to see the silver lining too. “The pandemic took away all distractions and allowed me to focus only on art,” he says.

This period in his life has unleashed a whole new creative outpouring for Sy. “The gallery is a window to a broader audience,” he says. “I’m having a blast.” In addition to painting, Sy is working on a new series of pop art sculptures while also writing the manuscript to his autobiographical book. His personal life has just as many interesting twists and turns as his creative career to date, which will be revealed in the book.

To find out more about Sy’s work, visit his website at syprevost.com.