Canadian-Haitian artist
Originally from Haiti, Marie-Denise Douyon is a citizen of the world. She grew up in North Africa, studied in New York and Washington and now lives in Montreal. With a fine arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology of New York, she returned to Haiti in the 1980s, then emigrated to Canada as a political refugee in 1991.
This peripatetic lifestyle is reflected in her paintings, in which dislocation is a common theme. To contemplate a piece by Douyon is to become more aware of the mixture of African and Creole cultures within the context of contemporary art. Douyon also expresses her concern about our culture of overconsumption by using found and discarded materials in her work.
Douyon’s art has been exhibited in many cities, including Montreal, Vancouver, Port-au-Prince, Washington, Dakar and Paris. She also had the privilege of showing her work at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, Tunisia, at a group show of Canadian and Tunisian artists.
Artistic Statement
The art of Marie-Denise Douyon reflects a cross-cultural identity informed by the confluence of three societies: her native Haiti, her childhood land, Morocco, and her adopted home, Quebec. Douyon transports us to mythical and sacred places interwoven with warriors, lovers and deities. With the invisible and the visible, she tells a story inspired by the Africa of her childhood, suffused with tenderness, depth, poetry and fantasy.
As a Montrealer in a Quebec increasingly concerned about climate change, Douyon focuses her artistic approach on themes related to global warming, ecological disasters and their social and environmental impacts. A dedicated recycler, she creates unique works from discarded material and found objects.
In 2012, her approach is iconographic and contemporary. Douyon combines photos with painting and sets elegant African Madonnas against white backgrounds to advocate for the sacred, for black beauty, motherhood and the wonders of procreation.
Traveling also feeds the artist’s inspiration: from a Moroccan trip in 2015, the artist draws imaginary villages; Kasbahs with shimmering hues arise on the back of a sheep, a mule or on the hump of an elongated camel.
From November 2017 till January 2018, Marie-Denise spends six weeks in Japan, and visited major cities, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo and Kyoto and smaller places, Kobe, Nara, Kurashiki, Naoshima, Miyajima and many more…
The wonderful landscapes, temples, castles, museums and the elegance and beauty of the Japanese women inspired the artist to create a series of watercolors and ink drawings which I entitled Kreol-Nippon, where the brush stroke becomes a predominant element of gesture.
Marie Denise Douyon joined Pixels.com Licensing on April 28th, 2018.
