(Miami) The heat was finally bearable at 7:30 p.m. In the grassy courtyard of the Museum of Contemporary Art of North Miami (MOCA), some 150 people came to attend a conference on the theme “Creating Dangerously” with Manuel as panelists Mathieu and New York writer Edwige Danticat. One activity among others that the 37-year-old Canadian-Haitian artist had during his five-day stay in Miami, as part of his first American museum solo. The first solo by a Canadian artist at MOCA since Rodney Graham in 1999.
His exhibition, presented until October, did not go unnoticed. The New York Times published a full-page review. And Artsy, the largest online art dealer in the world, devoted a long text to the “rising Haitian painter”, the Quebec painter most present on the international scene.
Since 2012 and his studies in London, the art world and collectors from Europe, Asia and America have been passionate about Mathieu’s immersive and narrative work and the style, between abstraction and figuration, with which it addresses subjects linked to the tumult of the world. Where does its success come from? “I think there’s an openness in my work where I’m trying to reconnect with my past,” he says. I’m not here to convince. I want to generate connections and contribute to something universal. »
The artist who arrived in Montreal at the age of 19 reaps what he sows. His American adventure began in 2018 when the Kavi Gupta gallery in Chicago began representing him. His first exhibition was a success. The great African-American collector Pamela Joyner acquired his work and invited him, the following year, to an artistic residency at her home in California. In 2020, he participated in an exhibition at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, which purchased a work from him. Then he participated in numerous fairs, thanks in particular to his Montreal gallery owner, Hugues Charbonneau.
Presented in English, Spanish and Creole, the exhibition is moving. Even for the artist who “poured his guts into the museum.” “This is one of my exhibitions that touches me the most deeply. » It is split into two parts. The first, World Discovered Under Other Skies, includes 34 works in which Mathieu reflects on the state of the world by examining the situation of small countries like Haiti, in search of liberation and maturity.
At the entrance, Sacred Burden reveals the emotional weight of his Haitian heritage. This is followed by ceramics and paintings on dramatic events that occurred under the Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986) or affecting other populations around the world. We find his unique touch which describes energies and memories with brilliance and sensitivity. The painting of an awakener of consciousness which makes the colors palpitate, the pigments expressing themselves and dissolving in a vibrant and often spectacular deployment.
The second part, Dwelling on the Invisible, was curated by MOCA’s chief curator, Adeze Wilford, who came to meet Mathieu in Montreal to prepare it. It is made up of 14 recent works, including his first mosaic to be exhibited, Abundance and Drought, with mind-blowing effects.
Next to the mosaic was his most accomplished textile, Resilience, a landscape of desire. A huge frame that was quite a challenge to transport. As was the installation Les désenchantés, with ceramic sculptures of enigmatic and tortured figures. “I thought a lot about the state of the world when I was creating it,” he says. “When you see the actions of political leaders, you think that our lives are worthless, in fact. Hence the disenchantment.”
The last work in the exhibition is his video Dife [fire, in Creole], which evokes the place of fire in the anger of Haitians. Images of demonstrations. “The smoke reminds me of my childhood. From my house, we could see it over the city. We knew that that day we would not go to school. Fire and smoke gave the pulse of the city. When you see these images of demonstrations, you tell yourself that people are exhausted. »
Very community-oriented, MOCA was touched that Mathieu wanted to meet the local population. He showed the exhibition to young people aged 7 to 10, students and seniors of Haitian origin. Miami is home to the largest Haitian community in the United States. La Presse also accompanied Manuel Mathieu to the Haitian Heritage Museum in the Little Haiti district. A small museum with works by Haitian and American artists of Caribbean origin.
“I met elders who lived through the dictatorship. Two of them were present during the public execution of [Marcel] Numa, on the orders of François Duvalier [on November 12, 1964]. As I painted Numa’s execution, the fact that they saw it with their own eyes struck me. People cried when looking at my works. It moved me. »
Manuel Mathieu continues to work on Haiti with the production of a documentary, The Fight for Haiti, on impunity and corruption. “The film allows us to take stock of what happened and is still happening in Haiti,” he says. This documentary might create friction, but if everyone is afraid and those who can speak remain silent, nothing will change. »
CBC also just released a documentary, Dream Without a Ceiling: The Art of Manuel Mathieu, directed by Will Prosper, which takes stock of his career. An idea from public relations specialist Rosemonde Gingras, who has been following Mathieu for 13 years.
At the same time, Mathieu is preparing for the Toronto Art Biennale, which will take place in the fall. He continues his creation of immense mosaics which will embellish the future Édouard-Montpetit REM station and he exhibits works in Europe, where his adventure also continues…