“A CAGE & A HOUSE WITHIN IT” SANDRA CHEVRIER
A Cage & a House in it: Sandra Chevrier Unmasks Strength, Vulnerability, and the Fight for Freedom
In her latest exhibition, a Cage & a House in it, internationally acclaimed Canadian artist Sandra Chevrier invites viewers into an intimate confrontation between power and fragility. Curated by Jessica Goldman Srebnick, this major solo showcase brings together 35 evocative works — including canvases, ink on rice paper, mosaics, and a commanding installation — that explore the invisible cages women inhabit and the courage required to dismantle them.
The Masks We Wear
Chevrier’s unmistakable portraits fuse hand-painted comic book fragments with the raw expressiveness of the female gaze. The result: heroines simultaneously shielded and suffocated by the masks they wear. Each face — layered with colour, emotion, and narrative — becomes a mirror of modern womanhood: strong yet constrained, heroic yet human.
“The masks become both armor and burden,” Chevrier has shared in past interviews, “and their destruction is an act of regaining power.” Within a Cage & a House in it, that act becomes a metaphor for liberation — the reclaiming of one’s voice amid societal expectation and self-imposed limitation. Freedom, as the artist asserts, is never gifted; it is fought for.
From Collector to Curator: The Collaboration
The exhibition marks the first full-scale collaboration between Chevrier and Jessica Goldman Srebnick, a cultural force known for her visionary approach to public art. What began as a relationship between artist and collector has evolved into a creative partnership defined by trust, shared purpose, and mutual reverence for the transformative power of art.
Together, they have orchestrated an exhibition that transcends aesthetics — a dialogue on resilience and transformation staged within the language of pop, comic iconography, and emotional truth.
Inside Chevrier’s World
Born in 1983 and based in Montreal, Sandra Chevrier has built an international following through her renowned Cages series — portraits that merge hand-painted realism with comic-strip symbolism to expose the tension between inner strength and imposed limitation. A graduate of UQAM – Université du Québec à Montréal, she describes herself as a “gaze collector” — an artist obsessed with eyes as portals to emotion, honesty, and rebellion.
Her visual language is deeply human: a collision of power and vulnerability, freedom and captivity, the poison and the cure. Chevrier’s art speaks to the quiet resilience of women everywhere — those who navigate the world’s expectations while fighting to preserve their authentic selves.
Beyond the Frame
a Cage & a House in it is not just an exhibition; it’s an emotional architecture. Each piece constructs a room within the larger structure of womanhood — a space where fragility is not a flaw but a form of strength. Through every brushstroke and fragment, Chevrier dismantles the myth of perfection and instead celebrates the beautiful complexity of being.
Her message is urgent and universal: the cages we inhabit — whether societal, emotional, or self-made — are not impenetrable. They can be reimagined, reshaped, and ultimately broken apart.
a Cage & a House in it stands as a monumental testament to transformation — where art becomes both mirror and manifesto. In Chevrier’s world, freedom is not found; it is created.