PÒTOPRENS at the Center for Subtropical Affairs

A special event celebrating the release of PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince, presented by Pioneer Works at the Center for Subtropical Affairs on Wednesday, December 1 at 7:00PM. The program will feature a conversation on artistic practice and cultural community in Haiti between Jean-Daniel Lafontant, special advisor to the PÒTOPRENS project; featured artist André Eugène, a member of the collective Atis Rezistans; and artist and PÒTOPRENS co-curator Edouard Duval-Carrié. The celebration will include musical performances by Kriz Rara and Khalbass, and food by Chef Creole, each highlighting contemporary Haitian culture.

About the Panelists

Edouard Duval-Carrié is an artist and curator who was born in Haiti and raised in several countries, including Puerto Rico and Canada. He was educated at McGill University, Loyola University, and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. While his work shows a cosmopolitan diversity, Haiti remains his major inspiration. Duval-Carrié’s widely exhibited work has been catalogued in six books and is featured in numerous permanent collections including the Perez Art Museum, the Frost Art Museum, the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien, and the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie in Paris. His exhibition Decolonizing Refinement was presented at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts and will continue to the Fondation Clément in Le Francois, Martinique and Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. He is the recipient of many awards, residencies, and public commissions such as the Florida Consortium and USArtist. He co-curated the exhibitions PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince at Pioneer Works and MOCA North Miami; and Visionary Aponte at the Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami, the KJCC at New York University, and the Power Plant Gallery at Duke University.

André Eugène is a sculptor and co-founder of the artist collective Atis Rezistans from the Grand Rue. In 2006, the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England commissioned Eugène, Jean Hérard Céleur, and Guyodo to produce the Freedom! sculpture, a permanent exhibition at the entrance to the museum. Since 2009, he has been the co-director of the Ghetto Biennale held in his neighborhood. Eugène’s work has been exhibited at the Grand Palais, Paris, France (2014); the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2012); the Musée de la Civilisation, Quebec City, Canada (2012); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2012); the Haiti Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2011); the Parc de la Villette, Paris, France (2009); the Global Caribbean Project at Art Basel, Miami Beach, FL (2009); the Musée d’Ethnographie, Geneva, Switzerland (2008); Columbia College, Chicago, IL (2007); the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL (2004); and the Centre Culturel AfricAméricA, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (2001).

Born in 1962 with the gift of clairvoyance, Jean-Daniel Lafontant was first initiated by members of his paternal grandfather in the city of Léogâne. Later, he was introduced to the tradition of his maternal ancestors as a Ounsi of Lakou Jisou. Lafontant became a Sèvitè and Houngan in 1997. A year later in December, he co-founded the sacred temple Na-Ri-VéH 777. In New York from the mid-1980s until 1996, he was intimately involved in the promotion of Haitian art influenced by Vodou. Since, he has produced, curated and consulted on many projects and events. From 2014 to date, Lafontant produced and helped shape more than half a dozen films related to Haiti and its culture. Lafontant is an alumni of the State University of Haiti, INAGHEI School of Management and Diplomacy as well as New York Institute of Technology. He spent two years as head of communications for the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and later joined UTE, a decentralized unit of the Ministry of Finance of Haiti. Intermittently in 2010, a few months after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, Lafontant joined the humanitarian sector as a communication specialist. For the past six years, Lafontant has divided his time between New York, Miami, and Haiti, where he devotes all his energy to the culture of Haiti.

About the Center for Subtropical Affairs

The Center for Subtropical Affairs is an ecological learning center in Little River, Miami that provides jobs and career training in sustainable development to the community. They work with students of all ages to advance environmental education, resource conservation, and overall environmental health.