MEET SARA

Sara Leger is a Canadian contemporary artist and oil painter based in South Glengarry, Ontario. Her original figurative paintings combine classical portraiture, Sacred Heart imagery, memento mori, mixed media and found objects in a style she calls Bougie Punk—old-world beauty with a decidedly less well-behaved disposition.

Leger’s work is built around a fairly simple proposition: time is short. Memento mori, Sacred Hearts, skulls and figures that look entirely uninterested in behaving themselves appear throughout her paintings as reminders to live accordingly. Beautiful, yes. Polite, not particularly.

That collision between history and irreverence extends to the objects themselves. Some works are housed in reclaimed century-old windows from Maryvale Abbey, a former Catholic girls’ school. Others sit in ornate vintage or hand-sculpted frames, rebuilt, altered, gilded, blackened and occasionally subjected to whatever questionable decision improves them. The history remains visible. That’s rather the point.

Formally trained in Illustration at Sheridan College, Leger spent years working across art, business and community before returning to her studio practice full-time. She previously founded and operated a successful women’s strength-training facility and has worked extensively as a curator and arts advocate.

Leger has exhibited at Cline House Gallery alongside artists including  Pierre Giroux , and curated and exhibited in Gardeners of the Galaxy with Jason DeGraff, Jessica Sarrazin, and Eliska Smiley. Her work has appeared in the Xanadu Gallery catalogue, she has illustrated three books by author Melissa Yee, and she has been recognized with an Artist of the Year award.

From Cherry Bomb Studio Gallery in South Glengarry, Ontario, Leger works directly with collectors across Canada and through selected gallery representation, including Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her original paintings are held in private collections across Canada and the United States, including Toronto, Montreal, New York, Seattle, Scottsdale and Los Angeles.

For Canadian collectors, original work can be purchased directly from the studio, with delivery available in Montreal and Ottawa and shipping throughout Canada. Select work is available in the United States through Xanadu Gallery.

The work isn’t about matching the sofa.

It’s about remembering that eventually, none of us gets another Tuesday.