Reimagining HAITI Part 2

Jean-Patrick Icart-Pierre and Michele Voltaire Marcelin are featured in “Reimagining HAITI, Part Two.” Both artists focus on the interaction of text and image, symbology and how to communicate the relationship of hope and struggle that’s prevalent and necessary in contemporary Haiti and America.

Jean-Patrick Icart-Pierre, was born in Haiti and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, where he works as an artist and educator. He uses found materials in his work to tell stories. In his recent work, he creates cityscapes by incorporating conceptually based objects and materials found in the streets into his paintings. He’s creating a ‘diorama’ of a street where the viewer can step into the work and become part of the street life; symbols, words and light show that there is hope for the future and the need to struggle for transformation.

Michele Voltaire Marcelin is a poet/writer, performer and painter who was born and raised in Haiti, sojourned in Chile, and currently lives in the United States. A self-taught artist, inspired by the paintings of Rufino Tamayo seen in Mexico, Marcelin started to paint in 1988. Marcelin paints women, alienated in their claustral spaces, framed by enclosures that confine and border their bodies within, convey loneliness, melancholy and defiance. It’s a public showing of a private world.

Gallerie HAITI is devoted to showcasing contemporary Haitian Art work, with the goal of expanding the visitor’s perception of Haitian culture. It is curated by MCLA Assistant Professor of Art, Melanie Mowinski. A portion of all sales will be donated directly to SEEDS for HAITI. SEEDS for HAITI is a program launched by Bassin Zim EDF at the end of 2008 in response to the food crisis and devastation created by the four hurricanes that hit Haiti in the spring of the same year. Overall, the vision of the Bassin Zim EDF for Haiti is a sustainable agriculture that provides enough food to feed all the population, a condition that requires, besides other things, a sustainable environmental program of forestation and land protection all over the country to bring an end to the process of desertification.

North Adams Late Night

Gallerie Haiti will be open until 2 am in honor of North Adams Late Night. This is the second day of the Wilco Sound Festival and the city of North Adams is greeting it with open arms. Not only the art galleries will be open but the local restaurants and shops will be open as well. If you stay up for the festival why shouldn’t we?

Hope to see you there!

More info here

Second show at Gallerie Haiti opening next week

Reimaging HAITI, the second in a series of exhibits at Gallerie Haiti, opening Thursday, July 29th, features the work of Rejin Leys, Robert Henriquez, Vladimir Cybil Charlier and Andre Juste. These artists focus on the role of theology, iconography, symbology and how artists use these motifs and ologies, to communicate their ideas about Haiti, identity, politics and nationalism.

The Second Exhibition Reimagining HAITI Part 1

OPEN ON JULY 29th from 6-9

Gallerie Haiti to open as part of Downstreet Art.

NORTH ADAMS, MASS. – Starting Thursday, July 29th, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Berkshire Cultural Resource Center (BCRC) presents the second in a series of exhibits at Gallerie Haiti, “Reimagining HAITI.” Gallerie Haiti is a Downstreet Art gallery featuring contemporary Haitian and Haitian American Artworks. “Reimagining HAITI” will begin with an opening reception on Thursday, July 29th, from 6 to 9 p.m.  The event is free and open to the public.

“Reimagining HAITI” is comprised of four artists: Rejin Leys, Robert Henriquez, Vladimir Cybil Charlier and Andre Juste. These artists focus on the role of theology, iconography, symbology and ways that artists use these motifs and ologies, to communicate their ideas about identity, politics and nationalism.

The styles of these artists differ greatly, but the concepts come from a similar symbolic source. Robert Henriquez uses vibrant colors to juxtapose words and images from contemporary society and Haitian Laos or gods in Creole. Vladimir Cybil Charlier takes mainstream cartoons and superimposes them onto line and water color compositions. She sews the characters from sequins and beads, creating a piece that is no longer two dimensional. Her work with her husband and collaborate Andre Juste takes a different approach. They paint landscapes on woven strips of paper made to look like toilet paper or paper towel rolls, as if to say, we are wiping clean of environmental and political trash that surrounds us.  The images differ from piece to piece, one will look like a waste land and the other is the tree of life, covered in trash: an exchange of environmental and political views . Rejin Leys creates drawings that take the concept “what came first the chicken or the egg” to a whole new level. In many ways, all of the artists in this show are looking at the push/pull and the divides between classes, culture, and politics that is prevalent especially in Haiti, but in other parts of the world as well, including the United States.

“Gallerie Haiti features contemporary Haitian and Haitian American art. It strives to raise awareness about Haitian culture that goes beyond the stereotypic tourist depictions and to encourage dialogue about current issues in Haiti inspired by the artworks exhibited. Thirty percent of all sales will go directly to Haitian relief efforts said Melanie Mowinski, curator and Assistant Professor of Visual Art at MCLA.

“Reimagining HAITI,” runs through August . Gallerie Haiti is at 49 Main St. in North Adams and is open Wednesday-Friday, 12-6; Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-2.  For more information, call 413-664-8718, or go to www.mcla.edu/galleriehaiti.   This exhibition is part of DownStreet Art, a city wide celebration of the arts and culture of North Adams, MA. www.downstreetart.org

Kelsey Montague prints for sale!!

All of the artwork is for sale in Gallerie Haiti but we have more prints of Kelsey Montague’s work

Grasping-4

Rebirth-5

Reaching-3

Pre-Flight-1 (sold)

these prints are only $50 each unframed and $150 framed.

%70 goes to the artist and %30 goes to Haiti!! So all of the money goes to a good cause.  We are trying to get the %30 to go to the rebuilding of the art museum Le Centred` Art that was destroyed during the earth quake. so much precious artwork is now lost because of that.

PLEASE HELP THEM REBUILD WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM!!

Down Street Art kickoff is tonight at 6pm

Gallerie Haiti 49 Main Street
Wed-Fri 12pm-6pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-2pm

A gallery devoted to showcasing contemporary Haitian Art work, with the goal of expanding the visitor’s perception of Haitian culture. A portion of all sales will be donated directly to the relief efforts in Haiti.

From June 24th, Haiti: Beyond Mountains there are Mountains, a collection of art works organized by Art for Change, an organization that encourages the advancement of progressive social change by using art as a catalyst for disseminating information to people. From July 29th, Reimagining Haiti Part One and Two continue to explore the concepts raised in the first show by focusing on bodies of work by a select group of artist.

	Art for Change presents HAITI: BEYOND MOUNTAINS THERE ARE MOUNTAINS Gallerie Haiti MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, North Adams, MA June 24, 2010 – July 25, 2010 Art for Change, New York, NY March 5, 2010 – April 10, 2010

Haiti: Beyond Mountains there are Mountains refers to a Haitian proverb using mountains as a metaphor for continued obstacles and challenges the country has faced.  Political and social earthquakes of no small scale have foreshadowed natural earthquakes and hurricanes. Yet, as the first country to achieve independence from colonial rule, mountains serve not only as a metaphor for obstacles, but also resistance of the Haitian people evidenced through an ever-present narrative of willful dissent and insurgency. Haiti: Beyond Mountains there are Mountains illuminates the common thread of strength in civil resistance throughout Haiti’s history via mechanisms ranging from civil disobedience to popular uprisings. The exhibition explores the political, economic, and social landscape in Haiti prior to the recent catastrophic earthquake, and examines how this topography has played out in the aftermath of a crisis. Haiti’s civil resistance has consistently been paralleled with imperialism of many forms, political and economic exploitation and individual greed coupled with extensive poverty, yielding varying faces of destruction. The earthquake itself could be seen as a metaphor for eruption of undersurface tensions along both sides of the fault line either between Haitians and outside interventionists, or between Haitian elite and Haitian moun en deyo (“marginalized and excluded”). Haiti: Beyond Mountains there are Mountains asks us to further question what the post-earthquake political, economic, and social landscapes of Haiti will look like, both concretely and metaphorically. If the Presidential Palace, state buildings, and elite mansions symbolized an old aesthetic of sauve-que-peut, or “survival of the fittest” politics, will their destruction inspire a new aesthetic of social equity, inured by heightened sympathy amid the recent tragedy? Do the mountains beyond not merely represent unending obstacles, but rather souls of Haiti rising, nurturing new opportunities for the peasantry alienated from state power until now? Will the political and social topography constitute a more “level” playing field?

Michael Pribich’s poignant installation, Reparation, offers a symbolic retribution to Haiti for centuries of destructive effects of foreign intervention and subsequent financial implications, encompassing Haiti’s payment to France of 90 million gold francs for its independence, as well as exploitative trade agreements and predatory loan practices of both foreign governments and foreign corporations.  Jonathan Allen layers imagery of Haitian workers, slave ships, and free trade zone factories to specifically highlight the inhumane conditions imposed upon Haitians to the benefit of both outside interests, but also asks us to question how U.S. corporations will use the post-earthquake conditions of scarce resources and devastated infrastructure as leverage to assert more power regarding labor agreements and development-stipulated loan terms more in favor of their own interests.  Isabel MacDonald’s series of graphic-novel style drawings utilizes sequential art to creative a narrative on use of space and its reflection of political and social landscapes with in Haiti. A building in Port-au-Prince originally constructed as a medical university later ironically because a base for U.S. Marines following the ouster of Aristide in 2004, and later still, a base for UN military factions. Another piece by Michael Pribich addresses not only international relations, but intra-regional relationships a bit closer to home in reference to Haitian workers under near slave-like conditions in the Dominican Republic, and subsequent divisions of class between the two countries. Photographs of Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic by Kathleena Howie-Garcia further highlight the lack of cranes, tractors, and usual construction apparatus, also bringing up issues of identity and cultural borders among children of Haitian workers born in the Dominican Republic who are neither granted Dominican citizenship nor acknowledged by the Haitian government.

Historically, voodoo has played an important role in gathering Haitians together – fertilizing seeds of rebellion against slavery, civil resistance movements throughout Haiti’s history, and now prayer and mourning for earthquake victims. Artist Andrew Fish references the Haitian Creole Pig which was key in the voodoo Bwa Kayiman Ceremony of 1791 marking the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, and was ironically eradicated in the 1970s by the African Swing Flu. The earth is literally opening up beneath the pig’s feet, both symbolizing post-colonial imperialism, poverty, and natural disaster plaguing Haiti and reasserting Haiti’s internal strength to overcome. The seemingly dead, yet actually more dream-like incognizant state of the subject before re-awakening in Zombie represents Haiti’s unrealized potential to rise back to life.  Haitian artist Vidho Lorville’s fantastical colors and brushstrokes analogize layers of meaning in Haiti’s political and social structures, and employs hidden references to the spirituality of voodoo and other traditionally Haitian symbolism so often lost amid new reports of the aftermath and more headlining political events. Courtney Puckett also employs national symbolism using the colors of the Haitian flag intertwined with mountain-climbing rope and other recycled materials, both harking back to the mountain as metaphor for the challenges and strength of the Haitian people, and suggested rebuilding out of the old.

Sarah Olson’s large work on paper epitomizes the push and the pull, the love and the hate, and economic interconnection between those in a position of economic power and those who are often powerless, and moreover, continuity of social injustice which lives on long after the abolition of slavery and a plantation-based economy.  Drawing also on the theme of strength in resistance, Kathleena Howie-Garcia’s combination of painted mural in a street-art style and collaged news images highlights both the history of civil resistance in Haiti, as well as infers the media reports of Haiti are not always what they appear and in fact, involve many overlapping themes and narratives. Tara Parsons’ unique artist book also incorporates images of recent news stories about Haiti, but redrawn on transparent paper, seeming to offer a new perception with obscurities removed, and also compiling these images together to form a sort of mountain of hope. Yae Li Cho’s layers of printed mountains invite the viewer to meditate both on the mountains of suffering and mountains of hope experiences by the Haitian people, and urges participation in expressing these sentiments using the art materials and sketch books on the table below.  Kelsey Montague’s detailed pen and ink drawings also inspire strength built out of destruction, weaving together imagery of Haitian history, culture, politics, and nationalism with universal symbols of hope and love. Haitian artist Patricia Brintle’s colorful and expressive lotus amid a mountain backdrop offer symbolic references to water as both a life-giving element and destructive element via hurricanes in Haiti, but also infers the minerals in the silt underneath the surface providing nutrients to the lotuses, and standing for the enrichment potential beneath the surface of Haiti’s current aftermath.   – Alyssa Fridgen, Art for Change

Gallerie Haiti opens June 24th

Gallerie Haiti will open Thursday, June 24th as part of the first Downstreet Art celebration.

It is a gallery devoted to showcasing contemporary Haitian Art work, with the goal of expanding the visitor’s perception of Haitian culture. A portion of all sales will be donated directly to the relief efforts in Haiti.

From June 24th, Haiti: Beyond Mountains there are Mountains, a collection of art works organized by Art for Change, an organization that encourages the advancement of progressive social change by using art as a catalyst for disseminating information to people. From July 29th, Reimagining Haiti Part One and Two continue to explore the concepts raised in the first show by focusing on bodies of work by a select group of artist.

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