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Elucidating the multi-layered explorations of Haitian Canadian artist Manuel Mathieu, this first comprehensive publication focuses on how Haiti has informed Mathieu's work over the past few years. Reflecting on the complex revolutionary history of his family homeland by unearthing its traumatized subconscious, and the erasure of memories of the oppressive and violent Duvalier dictatorships, Mathieu's vibrant paintings blur the boundaries between personal and political. Merging abstraction with figuration, Mathieu abrades his work springing from found photographs, by rubbing and scraping off layers of paint, before reintroducing impastoed snarls of color. Positioned at the fault lines of political and environmental crises, Mathieu considers Haiti's quest for self-determination as a prism reflecting a global longing for freedom, and grassroots resistance to imperialist and capitalist exploits.
Montreal-based artist MANUEL MATHIEU (*1986, Port-au-Prince) graduated with a Master's degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Kavi Gupta, Chicago (2021), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2020), and HDM Gallery, Beijing (2019).
About the author
Amin Alsaden is a writer, curator, and educator. His curatorial practice focuses on cross-cultural exchanges, with a commitment to disseminating inclusive narratives that challenge hegemonic epistemological and power structures. His research explores modern and contemporary art and architecture, with an emphasis on Western Asia and the Global South more broadly. He holds degrees from Harvard and Princeton, and has published and lectured widely.Osei Bonsu is a British-Ghanaian curator, critic and art historian based in London and Paris, and currently Curator of International Art at Tate Modern. His activities encompass exhibition programming, publishing and cultural strategy in the field of visual arts. He holds a Masters in History of Art from University College London, where he earned a distinction for his dissertation on Surrealism and African sculpture.Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books. She is the editor of The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States, Haiti Noir, and Haiti Noir 2. She has written seven books for young adults and children, as well as a travel narrative, After the Dance, A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel.Joana Joachim is a PhD Candidate at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill University. Her research interests include Black feminist art histories, Black Canadian studies and Canadian slavery studies. Her doctoral work, There/Then, Here/Now: Black Women’s Hair and Dress in the French Empire, examines the visual culture of Black women’s hair and dress in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.Sylvie Lacerte is curator of Québec and Canadian Contemporary Art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Independent curator, art critic, lecturer, author and teacher, she has held various other positions such as Artistic director of the Symposium international d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, a visual arts specialist for the Quebec Government’s Policy for the Integration of the visual arts into architecture.Der in Montreal lebende MANUEL MATHIEU (*1986, Port-au-Prince) schloss 2016 sein Studium der Bildenden Kunst an der Goldsmiths University of London ab. Seine jüngsten Einzelausstellungen fanden bei Kavi Gupta, Chicago (2021), im Montreal Museum of Fine Arts und The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2020) statt. 2019–2020 war er Artist in Residence an der Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.Is Director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. She holds an International Diploma in Heritage Administration and Conservation from the Institut National du Patrimoine in Paris, and received a DEA and a Master’s degree in Art History from the Sorbonne.Der in Montreal lebende MANUEL MATHIEU (*1986, Port-au-Prince) schloss 2016 sein Studium der Bildenden Kunst an der Goldsmiths University of London ab. Seine jüngsten Einzelausstellungen fanden bei Kavi Gupta, Chicago (2021), im Montreal Museum of Fine Arts und The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2020) statt. 2019–2020 war er Artist in Residence an der Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.
Summary
Elucidating the multi-layered explorations of Haitian Canadian artist Manuel Mathieu, this first comprehensive publication focuses on how Haiti has informed Mathieu’s work over the past few years. Reflecting on the complex revolutionary history of his family homeland by unearthing its traumatized subconscious, and the erasure of memories of the oppressive and violent Duvalier dictatorships, Mathieu’s vibrant paintings blur the boundaries between personal and political. Merging abstraction with figuration, Mathieu abrades his work springing from found photographs, by rubbing and scraping off layers of paint, before reintroducing impastoed snarls of color. Positioned at the fault lines of political and environmental crises, Mathieu considers Haiti’s quest for self-determination as a prism reflecting a global longing for freedom, and grassroots resistance to imperialist and capitalist exploits.
Montreal-based artist MANUEL MATHIEU (*1986, Port-au-Prince) graduated with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Kavi Gupta, Chicago (2021), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2020), and HDM Gallery, Beijing (2019).
