The AfroNouveau 100
With identity becoming increasingly fragmented, Edouard Duval-Carrié masterfully reassembles the pieces through art. Born in Port-au-Prince and shaped by the winding paths of exile and belonging, Duval-Carrié is not just a Haitian-born artist. Instead, he is a global cultural force. His richly layered work invites the AfroNouveau generation to see themselves not as scattered fragments of a colonial past, but as vibrant stewards of spiritual and cultural continuity.
Edouard Duval-Carrié: Haitian Artist with Global Influence in Vodou and Diaspora Art
Edouard Duval-Carrié was born in 1954, at a time when Haiti was undergoing significant political turbulence. Like many in the diaspora, his family left for political asylum. Leaving first to Puerto Rico, then to Canada and France. Though physically removed from Haiti, his heart never left.
Instead, he returned to Haiti again and again through his work. “I never abandoned Haiti,” he once said, “I’ve always painted it.” This loyalty became the soul of his art. Through painting, sculpture, and mixed media installations, Duval-Carrié gives life to the spirits of Haitian Vodou, historical revolutionaries, and the enduring resilience of the Caribbean soul.
Connecting the Mystical with the Political
To experience Duval-Carrié’s art is to walk a tightrope between worlds—past and present, sacred and profane, Caribbean and global. He blends African spiritual traditions, French colonial history, and contemporary issues into visually arresting pieces filled with glittering resins, radiant blues, and translucent figures that seem suspended between spirit and matter.
His iconic pieces like The Reckoning and Mardigras at St. Claude don’t just hang in galleries—they confront audiences with history’s silenced voices. The spirits he conjures are not ghosts but witnesses: reminders that the African diasporic journey, while heavy with trauma, also brims with memory, color, and resistance.
Global Voice, AfroNouveau Spirit
Edouard Duval-Carrié’s work’s been exhibited in museums from the Pérez Art Museum in Miami to the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien and galleries across Europe and the Americas. But despite his international acclaim, he remains deeply tethered to the concerns of the AfroNouveau. For instance, concerns reshaping Black identity, culture, and legacy with intention.
His art doesn’t offer answers; it invites questions. What does it mean to remember? How do we carry the weight of ancestral voices? Where do myth and memory intersect?
This approach profoundly connect with young Afro-descendants around the world, especially in an age where cultural pride’s becoming a form of activism. Moreso, reclaiming African-rooted knowledge is being seen as vital intellectual work.
Educator, Storyteller, and Cultural Keeper
Beyond the studio, Duval-Carrié has served as a teacher, mentor, and historian. He has lectured widely and worked with institutions. All these to curate exhibitions that reframe Haitian and diasporic art outside the narrow lens of trauma. His collaborative projects—such as those exploring Vodou aesthetics or the Haitian Revolution—function as visual archives. These projects offer new generations a more nuanced, empowered narrative of who they are.
A Living Archive of Afro-Diasporic Memory
Above all, with many artists swept up in fleeting trends, Edouard Duval-Carrié stands firm as a living archive of cultural memory and creative courage. His work is not simply decorative; it is ceremonial. It makes space for spirits, for stories, and for AfroNouveau futures still unfolding.
As we celebrate his legacy, we do not just honor a masterful artist. We recognize a cultural custodian, a diaspora griot, and a visionary. One who insists that to know where we’re going, we must feel deeply where we come from.
Join us as we celebrate Edouard Duval-Carrié and the AfroNouveau 100 who remind us to feel and feel deeply about our history.
