Name/Title
PerineumEntry/Object ID
2026.08.01Description
Manuel Mathieu (b. 1986, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, ceramics, film, and installation. His perspective is shaped by his childhood in Haiti and by his immigration to Canada at nineteen. Across mediums, Mathieu examines historical violence, erasure, resilience, and the cultural relationships we form with the body, spirit, and natural world.
Widely recognized for his vivid compositions that blur the lines between abstraction and chromatic paintings that fluidly merge abstraction and figuration. These works evoke unstable forms, constant motion, and moments of pareidolia—our instinct to find images or patterns where none are intended.
Mathieu proposes that global forces can be read through the lens of a single place, with Haiti serving as the focal point of his inquiries. He underscores the shared struggles and interconnectedness that bind people across borders. Even when engaging with political subjects, he approaches them through intimate reflections on solitude, mortality, survival, and desire.
His work maps the entanglement of personal and collective histories, where boundaries between past and present, and between the individual and the political, continually blur. While he draws from his own memories—including a period of recovery after a serious accident—he also confronts the layered and often painful history of his homeland. By excavating the enduring traumas of state violence, he creates space for reflection on Haiti’s past and invites viewers to imagine its possible futures.Artwork Details
Medium
Etching, dry point, aquatint and spit bite on paper