Manuel Mathieu Survivance

Left: Manuel Mathieu, 2018. Photo Marie-Anne Letarte. Right: Le Jardinier/Mané, 2019, by Manuel Mathieu.

1st solo museum exhibition for Haitian Montrealer Manuel Mathieu at MMFA

“I strive for inner peace because external reality is often unbearable.”

From Sept. 17 through March 28, 2021, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) presents Survivance, the first solo exhibition for Haitian-born, Montreal-based artist Manuel Mathieu. Survivance features 20 paintings (never before exhibited locally or anywhere in Canada) showcasing the Sobey Award-winning artist’s fluid, expressive, quasi-Expressionist and sometimes even abstract painting style, as well as one installation created specifically for the exhibition at the MMFA.

Some of the work featured in Survivance was made during a period of convalescence from serious accidents that Mathieu suffered in London, England and in Montreal. He also drew inspiration from the impact of the genocidal Duvalier father-and-son dictatorships that gripped Haiti from 1957 to 1986.

Manuel Mathieu
The Gardener/Mané by Manuel Mathieu

“I come from a country with a rich and complex imagination. Between natural disasters and political instability, I often have the feeling that my memory is fading away. The places of my childhood are forever changed. This forces me to cultivate and feed my own imagination as I piece together my reality. I strive for inner peace because external reality is often unbearable.”

—Manuel Mathieu

For more information about Survivance by Manuel Mathieu, please visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website.


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