January 31 – March 14, 2026
Opening reception:
Saturday January 31, 3-6pm
COOPER COLE, Toronto, Canada
↓ InformationCOOPER COLE is pleased to announce Copypasta, the fourth solo exhibition by Jesse Harris at the gallery.
1. Winter, Ella. Don’t you know you can’t go home again?
The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, p. 832
2. Wolfe, Thomas. 1940. You Can’t Go Home Again.
First edition. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Returning to Toronto within his memory, Jesse Harris (b. 1981) recalls the formative and irreverent sentiment within a downtown shopping plaza Village by the Grange where he once originally discovered it at …it store! circa 1989-90.
At a recent online auction, Harris purchased the collection (of purchases) and surviving works of Toronto Artist Beth S, age fifteen. Beth S assembled hundreds of small items of ephemera from …it store! and perhaps, as mythology, she even worked there. She included original artworks in their display, as if to personalize her collection and position it in totality. Totally participant in parody of trendy cliches of the period, her work is now regarded as prophecy.
With Copypasta, Jesse Harris exhibits contemporary works of iconoclasm. Using this ephemera directly, he recollects The Last Supper (Leonardo) with whitewashed memory ware sculpture as profane articles of faith.
A simple table is composed as a still life with dozens of wine and liquor bottles. The glass containers have been stoned with mortar and painted in oil. Any labeling has been obscured in a Cubist reduction to vessel form and symbol. Each bottle carries a mini message, a conversational quip, a motto or truism found on a badge from the collection of Toronto artist Beth S, age fifteen (c. 1989-90).
Fast, cheap and easy messaging is refashioned as a placeholder. A •bullet point loaded artwork as an empty flask or fiasco after The Last Supper Party.
In this exhibition, Jesse Harris debuts a series of new work called DTFs. The artist has created repeated imagery to mimic wallpaper or packaging or giftwrap or flash. Gangsheets of decals printed on film recall his past work in commercial sign making both in production and material language. The graphics refer to fruit forbidden: ads, emoji, logos, ethos, mascots, memes. An iron-on irony diary of decalcomania, designs so transferred to pottery are now framed as a window and put up as a poster. Placement within the gallery of Harris’ DTFs matches with the one-point-perspectival fresco of Leonardo.
Copypasta also features miniature pieces from the artist’s personal archive including global Telephone Calling Cards illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci. Also novelty Credit Cards and void Cheques collected by both Jesse Harris and Toronto artist Beth S, age fifteen (c. 1989-90).
Various small paintings of soup beer cans feed the floor. Breadcrumb followers sweep and swipe and search results. Wet-washed treasured message at sea glass. Knick knack, bric- a-brac, a rockhound bleached beach-comb.
– Jesse Harris, 2026
LOL ok yes this is **extremely art-world coded**, so let’s translate it into normal-human:
### Big picture: what is this show about?
It’s about **nostalgia, consumer junk, memes before memes, and how cheap mass culture becomes “holy” or meaningful over time** — kind of like turning trash + teen culture into religious icons.
Also about **not being able to go back to your childhood**, even when you literally return to the place.
—
### Step-by-step, in plain English
#### 1. “You can’t go home again”
He starts by quoting that famous idea:
👉 you can’t really go back to your past, even if you go to the same place.
He went back to Toronto and remembered this goofy mall store he loved as a kid in the
late 80s / early 90s.
So:
anymore.**
**this show is about revisiting childhood through objects, but realizing it’s not the same
—
#### 2. Who is Beth S, age fifteen?
At an auction, the artist bought a **huge collection made by a 15-year-old girl in 1989–
90** who collected:
* little store trinkets
* badges
* random cheap stuff
* plus her own drawings mixed in
She treated her collection like it was a whole art installation.
At the time it was just teen + trend + parody…
but now, looking back, it feels weirdly **ahead of its time**, like early meme culture or aesthetic culture.
So he’s kind of saying:
👉 *this teenager accidentally predicted internet culture and aesthetic obsession.*
—
#### 3. The Last Supper but make it mall trash
He uses her old stuff and turns it into art that references **The Last Supper** (like religious painting vibes).
He makes:
* a table
* with lots of wine and liquor bottles
* but he covers them with plaster and paint so they look like abstract shapes
So instead of holy cups and bread, it’s **empty bottles and consumer junk**.
Basically:
👉 modern “faith” = brands, trends, slogans, vibes
—
#### 4. The tiny messages on the bottles
Each bottle has a tiny slogan from the teen girl’s badge collection:
* little jokes
* mottos
* cute phrases
He’s saying these fast, cheap messages are like:
* empty motivational quotes
* social media captions
* things that sound deep but aren’t
So the bottles become symbols of:
> “we partied, we consumed, now it’s empty”
Hence the “empty flask after the Last Supper party” line.
Savage but kinda funny.
—
#### 5. What are the DTFs (lol yes that acronym)
These are sheets of repeated sticker images — like:
* wrapping paper
* packaging
* wallpaper
* merch graphics
They include:
* ads
* emojis
* logos
* mascots
* memes
He prints them like mass production, then transfers them onto pottery, frames them, hangs them like paintings.
So he’s turning **commercial junk visuals into gallery art**, while also mocking how fake- deep that is.
And he hangs them in the same layout as the Last Supper painting, again mixing:
👉 religion + branding + decoration
—
#### 6. Calling cards, fake credit cards, soup cans on the floor
He also shows:
* old phone cards
* novelty credit cards
* fake checks
* soup / beer can paintings scattered on the floor
All stuff about:
* money
* communication
* consumption
* searching / scrolling (“breadcrumb followers sweep and swipe and search results” = phone behavior)
So it’s basically saying:
👉 we worship convenience, brands, and endless searching instead of meaning
—
### Ultra-simple version
If I had to explain this in one breath:
> The artist went back to things from his childhood and from a teenage girl’s old collection of mall junk and slogans, and he turned them into religious-looking art to show how modern culture treats brands, trends, and memes like sacred objects — while also admitting it’s kind of empty and sad but also funny and nostalgic.
—
If you want, I can also explain:
* what “copypasta” means in this context
* why he keeps referencing Leonardo
* or what parts are genuinely smart vs just art-school word soup (because it’s definitely some of both 😅)
To learn more about this exhibition, please provide your contact information.
Jesse Harris
Last Supper
Last Supper, 2026
Oil paint, mortar, glass bottle, ephemera, wood
Dimensions variable
*Click here to view a full list of the bottles*
Jesse Harris
One Eyed Mixey
One Eyed Mixey, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0153
Jesse Harris
Whistle Dog (Dog Whistle)
Whistle Dog (Dog Whistle), 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0155
Jesse Harris
Fields
Fields, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0143
Jesse Harris
GENOVA’S
GENOVA'S, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0147
Jesse Harris
Candy Crush
Candy Crush, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0142
Jesse Harris
Palato
Palato, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0139
Jesse Harris
Juicyfruit
Juicyfruit, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0140
Jesse Harris
Judas’ Tail, A Tail of
Judas' Tail, A Tail of, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0141
Jesse Harris
Scrolling
Scrolling, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0146
Jesse Harris
Emoji
Emoji, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0154
Jesse Harris
Banana Stamp
Banana Stamp, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0144
Jesse Harris
Wind Up
Wind Up, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
Jesse Harris
Plasticman
Plasticman, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0152
Jesse Harris
Burgerchrist b/w Black Mac
Burgerchrist b/w Black Mac, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0151
Jesse Harris
Lame Decoys
Lame Decoys, 2026
DTF print in aluminum snapframe
J.Harris0148
