La Presse in Miami | The American rise of Manuel Mathieu

(Miami) Manuel Mathieu has managed, in a decade, to build a solid international career. After exhibitions in Europe and China, the Montreal artist born in Haiti is entitled to his first solo museum exhibition in the United States. The Press followed him to Miami to the scene of this highly noticed event.

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 panelists Manuel 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, on display until October, did not go unnoticed. THE New York Times published a full-page review of it. And Artsy, the world’s largest online art retailer, devoted a long text to “ rising Haitian painter », the Quebec painter most present on the international scene.

Read the Artsy article on Manuel Mathieu (in English)

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.

Create with your guts

Presented in English, Spanish and Creole, the exhibition is moving. Even for the artist who “poured his guts into the museum”. “It’s one of my exhibitions that touches me the most deeply. » It is split into two parts. The first one, World Discovered Under Other Skies (The 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 [Fardeau sacré] reveals the emotional weight of his Haitian heritage. Then follow 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 a consciousness awakener which makes the colors palpitate, the pigments expressing themselves and dissolving in a vibrant and often spectacular display.

The second part, Dwelling on the Invisible [Habiter l’invisible], is 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 its first mosaic to be exhibited, Abundance and Droughtwith mind-blowing effects.

Next to the mosaic was placed his most accomplished textile, Resilience, a landscape of desire. A huge frame whose transport represented quite a challenge. Just like the installation The disenchanted, with ceramic sculptures of enigmatic and tortured characters. “I thought a lot about the state of the world while creating it,” he says. When we see the actions of political leaders, we tell ourselves that our lives are actually worthless. Hence the disenchantment. »

The last work in the exhibition is his video Dife [le feu, en créole], 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. »

À la rencontre d’élèves et d’aînés

Très tourné vers la communauté, le MOCA a été touché que Mathieu tienne à rencontrer la population locale. Il a fait visiter l’expo à des jeunes de 7 à 10 ans, à des étudiants et à des aînés d’origine haïtienne. Miami abrite la plus grosse communauté haïtienne des États-Unis. La Presse a d’ailleurs accompagné Manuel Mathieu au Haitian Heritage Museum qui se trouve dans le quartier Little Haiti. Un petit musée avec des œuvres d’artistes haïtiens et américains d’origine caraïbéenne.

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« J’ai rencontré des aînés qui ont vécu la dictature. Deux d’entre eux étaient présents lors de l’exécution publique de [Marcel] Numa, on the orders of François Duvalier [le 12 novembre 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. »

A documentary on corruption

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 said. This documentary might create friction, but if everyone is afraid and those who can speak remain silent, nothing will change. »

CBC has also just released a documentary, Dream Without a Ceiling: The Art of Manuel Mathieu, directed by Will Prosper, who 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…

Consult the page of his exhibition at MOCA

Visit the artist’s website

Figuration or abstraction?

“For me, figuration and abstraction are not separate. Everything is abstraction. When you try to represent something, you go through abstraction, because you are conceptualizing something. What you paint doesn’t exist. This way of thinking does not reduce things. It allows them to be enlarged, to generate an emotion. In today’s world, it is difficult to agree on what reality is. Technology doesn’t help. We no longer know what is true or false. Art allows us to understand that the mechanics of how things appear can be replicated in life. »