The Orion
Lecture Series in Fine Arts
Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, is pleased to present:
Manuel Mathieu
Visiting Artist
7:30 – 9:00 pm (PST)
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Free & open to the public via Zoom
Presented by UVic’s Department of Visual Arts
For more information on this lecture please email: visualarts@uvic.ca
A multitude of realities and perspectives
Haiti-born, Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist Manuel Mathieu is known for his paintings which investigate themes of historical violence, erasure, as well as Haitian visual cultures of physicality, nature and religious symbolism.
Marrying abstract and figurative techniques, his compositions carve out space for us to reflect on Haiti’s transformative history while inviting us to consider the different futures the act of remembering creates.
Drawing from a wide-range of subjects, Manuel’s practice combines his Haitian heritage and his formal arts education, which culminated in an MFA Degree from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Exhibitions at home and abroad
He has exhibited in England, Belgium, China, Canada, the United States, Spain, France, Morocco, and Martinique. His work is part of different collections, such as the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal. His work has recently been included in The Other Side of Now at the Perez Art Museum Miami.
2020 was a significant year for him, having presented solo exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal and The Power Plant (Toronto). He also presented his work in the context of group exhibitions at Musée d’art contemporain of Montreal, at the Phi Foundation (Montréal), at the Song Museum (Beijing) and at the Kunstmuseum (Stuttgart).
Intersecting identities
While Mathieu’s trajectory may be easily traced to his Haitian upbringing, his work articulates his positionality from a multitude of realities and perspectives. The abstractness of his work conveys the abundance in existing at the intersection of racial, geographical, and cultural identities.
He expands his artistic repertoire to delve into subjects that investigate themes of historical violence, erasure, as well as Haitian visual cultures of physicality, nature, and religious symbolism. He takes us along a journey that brings pleasure and purpose in being vulnerable and ever-changing. His compositions carve out space for us to reflect on Haiti’s transformative heritage while inviting us to consider the different futures the act of remembering creates.
About the Orion Fund
Established through the generous gift of an anonymous donor, the Orion Fund in Fine Arts is designed to bring distinguished visitors from other parts of Canada—and the world—to the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts, and to make their talents and achievements available to faculty, students, staff and the wider Greater Victoria community who might otherwise not be able to experience their work.
The Orion Fund also exists to encourage institutions outside Canada to invite regular faculty members from our Faculty of Fine Arts to be visiting artists/scholars at their institutions; and to make it possible for Fine Arts faculty members to travel outside Canada to participate in the academic life of foreign institutions and establish connections and relationships with them in order to encourage and foster future exchanges.
Free and open to the public | Seating is limited (500 Zoom connections) | Visit our online events calendar at www.uvic.ca/events