The abstract works of Haitian artists Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux and Carl-Philippe Simonise are being presented as of January 20 at the Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée in our borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. Their work asks questions about the place of political power in our lives and meditates on themes such as transmission, rites of passage, pedagogy, housing, and friendship.
“This exhibition reveals to us the reflection of the two artists who move away from conventional ideas on what is defined as being a universe. Their committed works will challenge you and change your view of certain aspects of daily life and our society. Your visit promises to be very interesting! said Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, mayoress of the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension.
Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux and Carl-Philippe use paint and the graphic forms therein to explore a pictorial language specific to each. Desvarieux’s work depicts the movement and immobility of given spaces, possibly evoking the birth, development, or dissolution of certain “constellations” or certain social or personal universes, while Carl-Philippe Simonise delves into the interior landscape of his own universe, scrutinizing the relationship between their graphic and emotional forms, which are found on the canvas.
About the artists
Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux was born in Port-Au-Prince in 1986. He grew up in Haiti before immigrating to the United States and then to Canada where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in building engineering from Concordia University in 2011. He works and lives in Montreal. He presents a series of works produced on acrylic canvas, taken from his abstract corpus.
Carl-Philippe Simonise is a filmmaker, cinematographer, photographer and contemporary artist from Montreal. Carl-Philippe was born in Port-au-Prince and grew up in an environment that pushed her to take an interest in the human condition from childhood. The artist begins drawing very early, drawing inspiration mainly from the very present nature in his environment and takes as his main source of influence the ancestral Haitian culture rich in the supernatural.
James Oscar
James Oscar is a Montreal-born writer, art critic and anthropological researcher of Trinidadian descent. For the past 25 years he has written in the fields of contemporary art, cultural criticism and social theory, and has worked for more than 15 years as an independent curator. He recently acted as a performance curator at the Darling Foundry, at 24 Beaubourg in Paris, and at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He is currently the curator of the permanent art collection of the Maison d’Haïti and co-curator of the large prestigious collection of Latin American and Caribbean art, the Jara-Michel Collection. The exhibition The Secret Language of the Universe will be held until March 19, 2023 at the Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée.
