Galerie C.O.A. x Sandra Chevrier
La Cage et le parfum de la fuite is one of two skateboard triptychs Sandra Chevrier released through Galerie C.O.A. in Montréal in 2017. Both editions were limited to 100 sets worldwide and sold out within hours of release. This item is offered in mint, unframed condition with its original certificate of authenticity, hand-signed and numbered on the reverse of each board by the artist.
The triptych comprises three 16-colour screen prints on virgin Canadian maple skateboard decks, each measuring 20 × 82 cm. Chevrier constructed the composition to function as a single unified image across all three panels: a female subject, rendered in her signature hyper-realist portraiture, emerges from and is simultaneously consumed by the dense visual language of Marvel and DC Comics imagery. At distance the work reads as portraiture of great calm and beauty. Closer, the surface reveals its true complexity: cape lines, speech-bubble arcs, superhero anatomy, and flat-colour comic fields surge in from every direction, pressing against the woman's face, her neck, her shoulders.
The title carries a Surrealist charge deliberately left open. The cage was the perfume something that contained, that defined an atmosphere, that was once intoxicating and is now recognised for what it was. Chevrier does not resolve the ambiguity: the cage may be the beauty standards that defined the subject, or the comic-book iconography that masks her, or the gaze of the viewer encountering the work.
"A dichotomy: a dance between power and fragility, freedom and captivity — the poison and the cure." — Sandra Chevrier
The medium is the argument. The skateboard deck arrives carrying decades of cultural freight: counter-culture, street masculinity, speed, physical freedom, youth. Chevrier prints her intimate female portraiture directly onto this object and, in doing so, reclaims that territory completely. There is no separation between what the object is and what the image says. The natural maple grain beneath the silkscreen visible at the board edges and in raking light introduces a warmth and organic depth that no paper or canvas substrate can replicate.
Each of the three boards is a 16-colour screen print on wood Worthpoint, produced in strict collaboration with Galerie C.O.A. The edition comprised 100 sets, each board hand-signed and numbered by the artist on the reverse, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. This example has been stored flat in archival condition and has never been mounted, framed, or displayed. All three boards retain their original factory surface.
For display, the triptych is most compelling in a horizontal grouping with 2–3 cm of breathing space between each board. Italian artisan shadowbox framing at a minimum 5 cm depth is recommended to allow the maple edge to remain visible and the boards to read as three-dimensional objects rather than flat prints. Acrylic ledge mounting increasingly common in contemporary collector interiors allows the set to be rotated, reordered, and reinterpreted over time.
Artist: Sandra Chevrier
Title: La Cage Était Le Parfum
Year: 2017
Medium: 16-colour screen print on Canadian maple skateboard decks
Dimensions: 3 × (20 × 82 cm) — set of three
Edition: XX of 100 worldwide · Globally sold out
Signature: Hand-signed and numbered on the reverse of each board
Certificate: Original Galerie C.O.A. COA included
Condition: Mint · Never displayed or framed
Gallery: Galerie C.O.A., Montréal
Origin: Canada
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sandra Chevrier was born in Montréal in 1983 and holds a Bachelor of Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She describes herself as a "collector of looks" — an artist who believes a person's entire emotional world can be read through their eyes alone. That conviction is the foundation of Les Cages, the series of collaged female portraits that has defined her career since 2009 and for which she is now collected internationally.
The series began with a fusion of painting and real comic-book clippings — Marvel, DC, independent publishers — layered against and into painted portraiture. Over time the technique became entirely Chevrier's own: a method of simultaneous revelation and concealment in which the comics function as mask, imposed identity, and cage all at once. Her subjects are always women. They never play victim or seducer. They look back.
Represented by Galerie C.O.A. in Montréal, Chevrier's work has been exhibited and sold across North America, Europe, and Asia. Her primary paintings appear at auction through Heritage Auctions, Artsy, Paddle8, and Artnet.