Jean-René Leblanc is Associate professor of digital arts in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary (since 2006). He was president of the board of Emmedia Gallery and Production Society in Calgary from 2013-2021 and has served as an adjudicator for multiple granting agencies (Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Quebec Research Funds).

He was born in Montréal in 1967, and attended Concordia University, which he left in 1993 with a Bachelor in Studio Arts. In 1996, he graduated from the University of Windsor Ontario with a Masters of Fine Art in Multimedia and Photography and in 2006, completed a PhD in study and practice of art from the Université du Québec à Montréal. His artworks have been presented in exhibitions in Canada, the United States of America, Europe, Australia and Asia.