Manuel Mathieu Explained

Manuel Mathieu
Birth Date:October 9th 1986
Birth Place:Port-au-Prince, Haïti
Nationality:Haitian, Canadian
Education:Goldsmith University, London
Website:https://www.manuelmathieu.com/

Manuel Mathieu (born October 1986) is a Haitian contemporary visual artist recognized as a painter of abstract works that suggest figurative forms within ambiguous spaces. Mathieu draws from Haitian visual cultures and from Western art movements such as expressionism[1] and existentialism. His practice weaves together formal techniques, Haitian contemporary art movements to explore phenomenologies of human relations as they relate to power dynamics, loyalty, love, nature, subjective experience, history writing.[2] Mathieu’s work reflects on the intersection of individual and historical identity, examining how personal histories resonate within larger socio-political contexts.[2]

Early life and education

Manuel Mathieu was born Ayizan Pierre Manuel Mathieu on October 9, 1986, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Both his parents are Haitian and raised their children with high expectations of educational achievements. His father Philippe Mathieu is an agronomist[3] while his mother has a Phd in psychology. He has two younger sisters that both reside in Canada. When he was 15, he got closer to his cousin and groundbreaking Haitian artist Mario Benjamin. He often went to his house, a space full of magazines, art catalogues, and sculptures. There, at Benjamin’s house, he became acquainted with artists that influenced his own work, trailblazers such as Mona Hatoum and Clyfford Still.[4]

When he was 19, Mathieu moved to Quebec, into his grandmother's house who had emigrated to Canada with her children, without her husband, a colonel under Jean Claude Duvalier's dictatorial regime. His parents associated Mathieu's artistic exploration to his struggles. When he moved to Blainville, Quebec, he began painting, as well as doing photography and video art more intensely with the support of his grandmother.[2]

In 2016, he obtained a Master of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, England.[2] Since his graduation, Manuel has become a sought-after artist with international representation by art galleries Hugues Charbonneau, in Montreal, Maruani Mercier in Brussels, Belgium, and HDM gallery in Beijing, China and London, United Kingdom.[5]

Artistic influence and style

In 2015, one year into his postgraduate program at Goldsmiths, Mathieu was involved in a near-fatal motorbike hit-and-run. He suffered a severe concussion, facial trauma, fractures of his jaw, and short-term memory loss. This experience influenced the subject of his MFA thesis show “One future.”[6] After his physical recovery and no more visible traces of his accident, he wanted to express what lingered innately. He found a correlation between his invisible trauma and that of his country after the Duvalier dictatorship. “One Future” explored the Duvalier regime in order to address the national trauma that was scarcely being addressed in collective settings. The accident also drew him closer to his family and consolidated his friendships. Many of Manuel’s portraits are of his immediate circle.[2]

Deconstructive processes shape the overarching themes of Mathieu’s work, as he develops an visual language that pushes the confines of representational depictions and what is considered figurative.[7] He extrapolates abstract formal techniques to portray historical Haitian figures and subject matters, creating a visual language that indicates his point-of-view through interpretative considerations. The textural, compositional, and thematic transparency in Mathieu’s work underscore his practice and deep concern to uncover the power and spiritual structures behind modes of thinking, of behaving and manifesting realities.[1] Recent critical essays have highlighted his ability to blend texture, composition, and transparency, emphasizing how his practice reveals the power dynamics and spiritual structures underlying human thought, behavior, and reality.[8]

His paintings often re-stage archived materials such as videos and photographs to bring forth the fact of erasure, of invisibility and the consequent curiosity and questions that arise in the face of narrational voids. His work interrogates the gaps and silences in historical narratives, particularly those imposed on the Black diaspora through colonialism and marginalization.[9] This approach has been celebrated in several recent articles where critics have praised Mathieu’s ability to bring forth narratives that question official histories while amplifying collective memories of trauma and resistance.[10]

As a multidisciplinary artist, he draws from various musical practices— jazz improvisation and repetition— and material processes that allow him to expand and diversify his approach on a subject matter that he explores years on end.[2] Mathieu consistently refers Haitian visual cultures of religious hybridity such as in The Poto-Mitan movement, ecology, nature as it appears in other movements like Saint Soleil, which further broaden his multidisciplinary approach .[5]

Reviews of his exhibitions, particularly those showcasing Pendulum, have noted the project’s emotional resonance and conceptual depth. The work has been described as a critical turning point in Mathieu’s career, reflecting his expanded exploration of history, trauma, and spiritual resilience. These exhibitions, held at prestigious venues like The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Miami, have solidified Mathieu’s reputation as an artist who transcends traditional forms and themes, creating work that resonates with both personal and collective histories.[11]

Drawings and other media

Mathieu's official website, https://www.manuelmathieu.com/, serves as a portal to his multifaceted artistic practice. Beyond painting, Mathieu explores various media, including drawing, textile, video, and installation art. His drawings, often created on a smaller scale than his paintings, have been instrumental in triggering breakthroughs in his painting technique, offering a space for experimentation and the development of new ideas.[12]

His short films push the boundaries of conceptual narration in his perpetual study of how beliefs, and history informs our perspectives and our reactions to political and/or intimate events. One of Mathieu’s most celebrated film projects, Pendulum (2023), exemplifies this multidisciplinary approach. The project has been exhibited internationally and has garnered significant recognition, earning Mathieu the Best Short Film Award from the International Festival of Films on Art. Pendulum has been featured in major exhibitions in venues such as the Power Plant Contemporary Art, the Gallery TPW in Toronto, the Saint-Louis Art Museum, the Perez Art Museum in Miami and the Museum of Contemporary Art Miami.[6]

Selected exhibitions

Solo

Group

Collections and awards

Public and Private Collections

USA

CANADA

LEBANON

CHINA

ISRAEL

Awards

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Caroline . Elbaor . Why London Artist Manuel Mathieu Is on His Way Up . Artnet News . 25 May 2019.
  2. Web site: Spicer . Emily . Manuel Mathieu: 'Life experience sometimes forces you to see things that you wouldn't otherwise have seen' . Studio International . the Studio International Foundation . 15 May 2019.
  3. Web site: Grogg . Patricia . In Haiti, April Showers Don't Always Bring Flowers . IPS . 18 May 2019.
  4. Web site: Roffino . Sara . Fast-Rising Painter Manuel Mathieu Creates Deeply Personal Work . Galerie Magazine . 15 May 2019.
  5. Web site: Rianna Jade . Parker . Rianna Jade Parker . 'We Are Rebellious Souls': Manuel Mathieu Imagines a Caribbean of the Future . Frieze . 5 September 2019.
  6. Web site: Villar-Pérez . Raquel . Manuel Mathieu: reflections on abstract painting and trauma . AFRICANAH . 20 May 2019.
  7. Web site: Mercier . Maruani . Press release: Manuel Mathieu, The Spell on You . Artnet news . 20 May 2019.
  8. Gagosian. Social works II: Manuel Mathieu The Delusion of Power https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2021/11/29/essay-social-works-ii-manuel-mathieu-delusion-power/
  9. Web site: Tiwani . Contemporary . Press Release: Manuel Mathieu, Truth To Power . Artforum . 20 May 2019.
  10. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2020. MANUEL MATHIEU: SURVIVANCEPaintings of powerful, haunting, irrepressible beauty.https://artguide.artforum.com/uploads/guide.005/id24100/press_release.pdf
  11. Toronto Biennial of Art, 2024. https://torontobiennial.org/exhibition/pendulum/
  12. Book: Critical perspectives on conflict in Caribbean societies of the late 20th and early 21st centuries . 2015 . Cambridge Scholars Publ. . 151 . 9781443882477 . 20 May 2019.
  13. Web site: The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art . Pérez Art Museum Miami . 25 July 2019.
  14. Web site: Nesbitt . Sarah . Over My Black Body at Galerie de l'UQAM, Montreal . Akimboblog . Akimbo.
  15. Web site: COMMUNIQUÉ : nous sommes ici, d'ici : l'art contemporain des noirs canadiens. MBAM. 15 March 2020.
  16. Web site: Spooky - Manuel Mathieu. 27 April 2020.
  17. Web site: Mathieu, Manuel. 27 April 2020. Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
  18. https://lefifa.com/en/
  19. Web site: 2020 Sobey Art Award Increases Cash Prize for Longlist Artists 25 exceptional. 27 April 2020. National Gallery of Canada.
  20. Web site: fig-2 open call winner: Manuel Mathieu. 27 April 2020. Art Fund.