Stride of the Gentle Giant

Lysiane Morrel: When the Cat’s Too Big for the Gallery

Lysiane Morrel (b. 1993, Lille, France) is a self-taught illustrator who calls her style “domesticated surrealism.” As a child, she imagined shrinking herself and riding her cat like a horse. Her series Impossible Pets shows giant animals in normal, everyday scenes. Critics from major European galleries have called her work childish and “not real art.” Morrel says this only proves that her style sits between comfort and absurdity—a place the art world rarely dares to go.

Lysiane Morrel, “Stride of the Gentle Giant”, 2025. Digital art. Print from the digital file. 80 x 80 cm (31.49 x 31.49 in.). Museum of Modern Art, Department of Rejected Artists. Gift of Lysiane Morrel. ©️Lysiane Morrel. Photo by Jean Chapeau.

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