Artist Statement
My work creates visual portals that invite viewers to see differently and enter a dialogue between materials, forms, histories, and lived experiences. Through painting and mixed media, I explore memory, resistance, and spirituality, treating each work as an open space where meaning is continually shaped. Each piece becomes a meeting place between the visible and invisible, between matter and emotion.
I use both traditional and unconventional materials, incorporating elements like fabric, charcoal, resin, or coffee grounds. In some works, acrylic paint merges with found fabrics to create relief paintings, exploring recovery as an act of repair and justice. This transformation of matter generates centers of visual energy, where light becomes a symbol of resilience and hope.
Rooted in my Haitian heritage, my practice weaves ancestral memory with contemporary realities. I connect historical narratives, fragments of everyday life, and reflections on social and political conditions, exploring how cultural heritage and displacement shape identity. In this space of tension and dialogue, art becomes a language of transmission, resistance, and reconnection.
Through the rhythms of life and the traces of history, I conceive art as a means of movement and transformation—where color, form, shadow, and light converge to open sensory and spiritual fields. By reclaiming and reimagining materials, I aim to restore what has been fragmented by displacement, creating acts of healing, belonging, and shared reflection.
Biography
Rénold Laurent is a Haitian artist currently based in Cambridge, MA. He was born in Source Bretoux, an artistic village in the Marbial Valley near Jacmel, Haiti. At the age of ten, He began to draw and paint under the direction of his father, Maccène, a primitif artist. Very early, he was inspired by the cultural life of his rural environment, including Rara, Carnival, and the architecture of Jacmel.
In 1995, in his quest to continue improving his painting techniques, he took many trips from Jacmel to Port-au-Prince to open his mind and learn more about other artists. It was through the books and catalogs of the libraries in Jacmel that he began to discover the works of Manet, Cézanne, Monet, and the names of great Haitian painters such as H.Hypolite, Tiga, Lazard; these research trips had a profound impact on his artwork. A few years later, he incorporated new perspectives and techniques into his paintings.
Turning toward abstraction in 2001, Laurent considers abstract painting the most expressive way to explore the powers of imagination. Through painting, collage, and mixed media, he uses materials such as coffee, Acrylic, fabric, and found objects to create dialogues around memory, resistance, and spirituality. A poet as well, he has published several collections with Éditions Choucoune in Port-au-Prince. Laurent has also collaborated with Haitian cultural institutions, including the Musée d'Art Haïtien, and spent a decade leading youth art workshops across Haiti.
In 2019, he received the Heimark Artist Residence Award from Brown University's Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice. His work continues to explore memory, identity, migration, and cultural resilience through a multidisciplinary practice that bridges painting, mixed media, and poetry.
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 — Vibration of Colors
Light Space Gallery, International Art Museum of America (IAMA), San Francisco, CA | June 14–July 31, 2024
2019 — Memory Work
Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University, Providence, RI | February 15–May 10, 2019
2018 — Material Consequences
Mary L. Fifield Gallery, Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA | May 22–July 27, 2018
2015 — Abstraction and Expression
Brazil/Haiti Cultural Center, Pétion-Ville, Haiti | April 10–30, 2015
2014 — Abstraction and Expression
Casa del Joven Creador, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba | July 3–12, 2014
2011 — Solo Exhibition
Brazil/Haiti Cultural Center, Haiti | July 12–August 10, 2011
2008 — New Perspectives and Techniques
Centre d’Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti | April 25–May 15, 2008
2006 — Solo Exhibition
French Cultural Center, Jacmel, Haiti | April 28–May 5, 2006
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 — This Life: Black Life in the Time of Now
Documentary and digital exhibition, Miami Museum of the African Diaspora (MOCAAD), Miami, FL | December 2023
2022–2023 — Racial Slavery, Marronage & Freedom
Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University, Providence, RI | September 2022–February 2023
2017 — Haiti aux Grands Voisins
Organized by Haiti Futur and Haiti Action Artistes, Paris, France | June 21–25, 2017
2013 — Haitian Art in Transit
Logan International Airport, Boston, MA | January–March 2013
2012 — Mémoire d’une ville imaginaire
Nantes, France | January–February 2012
2011 — Quand Nos Pinceaux ont Tremblé
Boston City Hall, Boston, MA | January–March 2011
2005–2006 — Noël vu par les peintres
Haitian Art Museum, Port-au-Prince, Haiti | December 2005–January 2006
2005 — Tendance de la jeune peinture haïtienne
Haitian Art Museum, Port-au-Prince, Haiti | May–September 2005
2003 — Three Emerging Artists from Jacmel
French Cultural Center, Jacmel, Haiti | April 28–May 6, 2003
2002 — Watercolor International Biennial of Mexico
Watercolor Museum, Mexico City, Mexico | November–December 2002
1996 — Femme Jardin
Municipal Library of Jacmel, Jacmel, Haiti | April 25–May 5, 1996
Awards & Residencies
2024 — Kolaj Artist Residency
Kolaj Institute, New Orleans, LA | December 2024
2019 — Heimark Artist Residence Award
Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University
1998 — First Prize, Painting Competition
French Cultural Center, Jacmel, Haiti
Competition commemorating the 300th anniversary of the city of Jacmel
Publications
Poetry Collections
2017 — Onondipè
French and Haitian Creole | Éditions Choucoune, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
2011 — Mannivèl
French and Haitian Creole | Éditions Choucoune, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
2008 — Paroles en Relief
French and Haitian Creole | Éditions Choucoune, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
2006 — J'habite une ville volatile
French and Haitian Creole | Éditions Choucoune, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Areas of Practice
Painting • Mixed Media • Abstraction • Reclaimed Materials • Cultural Memory • Migration • Haitian Heritage • Black Experience • Spirituality • Resistance • Materiality
Cambridge MA. 2026
Jacmel, Haiti. 2006
Studio
Jacmel, Haiti. 2012
