Ortaire de Coupigny : Artist Profile.

Ortaire de Coupigny, a contemporary French artist born in 1975, has cultivated a distinctive practice that bridges the boundaries of painting and sculpture. Trained at the Fine Art Schools of Normandy from 1991 to 1995 and later at the Ateliers d’Art de la Ville de Paris, Ortaire honed his skills in diverse mediums, including stained glass. This early training deeply influenced his artistic approach, with transparency emerging as a central theme throughout his career.​ In his Iconic sardine-can series, transparency is both literal and metaphorical. The epoxy encasing his vibrant fish references the delicate interplay of light and depth reminiscent of stained glass. The sardine cans are transformed into intricate frames for the artist’s exploration of form, colour, and texture. The vibrant, hyperreal fish appear suspended in time, creating a striking juxtaposition between the ephemeral beauty of nature and the permanence of the medium. ​By situating his sardine-can series within the broader context of art history, Coupigny’s work engages with elements of assemblage, Pop Art, postmodern surrealism, and contemporary collectible design. His sardine cans collapse the boundaries between sculpture, painting, and engraving, transforming everyday materials into objects of contemplation. Each piece balances industrial precision with artistic intervention, creating sculptural objects that also function as pictorial spaces, where transparency and materiality play a central role. ​Over his career, Ortaire de Coupigny has gained international recognition, exhibiting in galleries across Europe—including the Netherlands, England, Spain, and Switzerland—and more recently in Germany and Australia. A major milestone was his inclusion in the prestigious Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2008. His works are featured annually at prominent art fairs worldwide, including those in Brussels, Stockholm, Hamburg, Hong Kong, New York, and Miami, further solidifying his reputation as a global artist. An installation of his works can be seen in spaces such as the Delta Sky Club Lounge at Boston Logan Airport in the United States. ​Through his sardine-can series, Coupigny invites viewers to engage with the interplay of transparency, humour, and materiality. His work celebrates the ordinary while provoking reflection on the complexities of representation and the boundaries of artistic mediums. It is a meditation on the transformative power of art, where the mundane becomes extraordinary and the familiar gains new significance.