In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st‐Century Haitian Art
In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st鈥怌entury Haitian Art explores how leading Haitian visual artists have responded to a tumultuous 21st century, an era punctuated by political upheaval, a cataclysmic earthquake, devastating hurricanes, epidemics, and continuing instability. Consisting of approximately seventy mixed-media works by established artists and a rising generation of self-taught genre-busters, the exhibition offers unflinchingly honest and viscerally compelling reactions to Haiti鈥檚 contemporary predicament.
In depicting stark realities of the Haitian (and human) condition, all of these pieces invoke the overarching presence of Baron Samedi, the Vodou divinity who presides over key aspects of mortality, sexuality, and rebirth, and his trickster children the Gede, who are the Vodou divinities most beloved by the Haitian people. Sculptures by Grand Rue artists Andr茅 Eug猫ne, Jean H茅rard Celeur, and Frantz Jacques Guyodo鈥昪rafted from used automobile parts, old computer components, and other industrial cast-offs as well as incorporating human skulls and clothing鈥昪learly bear his imprint. So too, do heavily beaded and sequined textiles by Roudy Azor and Myrlande Constant that depict the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath. Likewise, paintings by Mario Benjamin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Didier Civil, Franz Z茅phirin, and Edouard Duval-Carri茅 and site-specific installations by Maksaens Denis and Akiki Baka all proclaim Baron Samedi and the Gedes to be paramount spirits for a nation, and perhaps a world, in extremis.
Recommended for you
In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st鈥怌entury Haitian Art explores how leading Haitian visual artists have responded to a tumultuous 21st century, an era punctuated by political upheaval, a cataclysmic earthquake, devastating hurricanes, epidemics, and continuing instability. Consisting of approximately seventy mixed-media works by established artists and a rising generation of self-taught genre-busters, the exhibition offers unflinchingly honest and viscerally compelling reactions to Haiti鈥檚 contemporary predicament.
In depicting stark realities of the Haitian (and human) condition, all of these pieces invoke the overarching presence of Baron Samedi, the Vodou divinity who presides over key aspects of mortality, sexuality, and rebirth, and his trickster children the Gede, who are the Vodou divinities most beloved by the Haitian people. Sculptures by Grand Rue artists Andr茅 Eug猫ne, Jean H茅rard Celeur, and Frantz Jacques Guyodo鈥昪rafted from used automobile parts, old computer components, and other industrial cast-offs as well as incorporating human skulls and clothing鈥昪learly bear his imprint. So too, do heavily beaded and sequined textiles by Roudy Azor and Myrlande Constant that depict the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath. Likewise, paintings by Mario Benjamin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Didier Civil, Franz Z茅phirin, and Edouard Duval-Carri茅 and site-specific installations by Maksaens Denis and Akiki Baka all proclaim Baron Samedi and the Gedes to be paramount spirits for a nation, and perhaps a world, in extremis.
Artists on show
Contact details
What's on nearby
