Manuel Mathieu – Negroland: A Landscape of Desires

Kavi Gupta presents Negroland: A Landscape of Desires, a solo exhibition of new paintings and ceramics by Haitian-born, Montreal-based artist Manuel Mathieu.

Mathieu’s practice is guided by intuition and the unknown as much as by intellect and memory. He sees the artist’s studio as crucible—a container in which forces and pressures are exerted to transform materials and ideas. The work is not the end of the process; rather, it creates the circumstances for connections, perspectives, and relationships to come into being.

His latest abstract paintings and ceramic sculptures mobilize materiality and form as a means to embrace—and express—the messiness of desire. The works feel both intimate and universal, connecting Mathieu’s personal sensibilities with a sense of history and an awareness of the current global conversation surrounding identity, sexuality, and spirit.

Mathieu is a 2020 recipient of the Sobey Art Award. Recent solo exhibitions include Survivance at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, 2020; World Discovered Under Other Skies at The Power Plant, Toronto, 2020; Manuel Mathieu: La beauté et l’amour comme habitude at Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, Montréal, 2020; Manuel Mathieu at HDM Gallery, London; and Chavire Chodyèa at Maruani Mercier, Brussels. Select group exhibitions include To be titled at Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, 2020; La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux at Museum of Contemporary Art Montreal, Montreal, 2020; Relations: Diaspora and Painting at Phi Foundation, Montreal, 2020; and The Other Side of Now at Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, 2019. Mathieu's work is in the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Contemporary Art Montreal.