Manuel Mathieu Haiti, b. 1986

This painting by Manuel Mathieu is a visual and conceptual declaration of Mathieu’s overall aesthetic position, which manifests at the intersection of abstraction and figuration; storytelling and myth; past and present; the unseen and the seen. The organic forms and frenetic brushstrokes that define Mathieu’s visual language continually spill out of the painted structure surrounding them in this composition. The phrase "framing the abyss" could describe exactly what Mathieu endeavors to do every day as a visual artist, as he tries to contain the uncontainable; to speak the unspeakable. “I am trying to frame the impossible,” Mathieu says. Like a Zen kōan, this painting playfully expresses the difficulty of such a thing, like trying to understand a dark room by turning on the light.