12590: ::: Yahoo News ::: Haitian Artists Find Viewers and Buyers Online ::: Reuters ::: (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: ArtMedia Haiti News <artmedia-mail@intermediahaiti.com>

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ArtMedia Haiti
http://www.artmediahaiti.com
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Haitian Artists Find Viewers and Buyers Online
By Michael Deibert
Mon July 29,10:15 AM ET
Yahoo! News - Lifestyle - Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - In a sweltering room in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haitian painter Etzer Pierre unrolls a canvas showing computer screens separated by a rainbow ascending into a five-pointed voodoo symbol.

"It's a marriage between modernity and tradition, you might say," he says. "Elements of mystery and the world trying to co-exist together."

He might be speaking of Haitian art's forays into cyberspace.

Haiti's painters, sculptures, metal workers and sequined "voodoo" flag artisans -- famed in the Caribbean, but traditionally rather isolated -- are starting to see the power of the Internet in finding exposure and markets for their works.

Whereas Haitian art previously relied largely on word of mouth among collectors and aficionados, the Internet has allowed for more direct marketing from Haiti, a Caribbean nation of eight million which is the poorest country in the Americas.

ArtMedia Haiti, an online gallery ( www.artmediahaiti.com ) based in the airy Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville, specializes in shipping works by Haitian artists to a worldwide audience.

The creation of Lori Manuel Steed -- the daughter of Haitian artist Michele Manuel-- and American expatriate Birgit Coles, ArtMedia has helped bring modern Haitian painters like Frantz Zephirin and Pascale Monin, as well as more traditional artists, to a wide audience.

One of several relatively new online windows to Haitian art, such as the Pittsburgh-based Galerie Macondo ( www.artshaitian.com ) or MedaliaArt ( www.medalia.net ), which operates out of East Setauket, Long Island, ArtMedia has met with impressive success.

"We've been online for nearly a year and the numbers of people visiting has been amazing," says Steed. "At the moment, we have 10,000 subscribers to our newsletter."

"We've shipped pretty much all over the world, but we've been especially strong in North America, Mexico and Europe," adds Coles.

A painter herself, who was initially encouraged by Haitian gallery owner and former jazz musician Issa El Saieh of Galerie Issa, Steed says Haitian artists have been quick to grasp the potential of selling online.

"Our financial relationships with the artists vary, depending on who they are and where they are in their career," she says. "But many artists have a set price for their piece and will simply ask us to put it out on the Web."

IN TOUCH WITH THE WORLD

The painters seem to agree.

"The Internet is a kind of global village where anyone in different areas of the world can be in touch very fast," says painter Jhomson Vidho Lorville, a young Haitian painter who sells his art via his Web site, www.vidholorville.com.

"It's made a huge difference for exposing the art in terms of a country like Haiti, where communications are very poor," Lorville says.

"Young Haitian artists are trying different things, and being exposed to different influences than in the past. And whatever Internet or world market there is, I think there's a place for everyone."

Lorville's work, and that of other young artists such as Etzer Pierre and painters working out of the National School of Arts, is often characterized by exaggerated, almost caricature-like depiction of facial features and scale, reminiscent of the graffiti murals one sees in Brooklyn, New York.

In one painting, "Figi Beton," Lorville depicts a "chimere" -- Haitian slang for paid political rabble rouser -- gazing at the world from behind mirrored sunglasses, a bandanna wrapped around a huge head that takes up nearly the entire canvas. There are burning tires in the background.

Steed said such paintings belonged in a new realist movement that began with Stevenson Magloire, who was killed during Haiti' brutal military government of 1991-94, and produced work with harsh and angry imagery and colors. The work contrasted with that of painters like his mother, Louisianne St.-Fleurant, who helped found the famous "Saint-Soleil" school of lyrical, voodoo-influenced Haitian painting three decades earlier.

Haitian art, which started coming into its own in the first half of the 20th century, has developed into one of the most diverse in the Caribbean, encompassing everything from formal portraits and scenes of peasant life to images of voodoo deities and sophisticated political commentary.

There is a hope that its appearance on the Internet will help Haitian art attract the appreciation and serious critical discussion that many believe it deserves.

"I would love to see more serious art critics interested, in an academic way, in Haitian art," says Dr. Frantz Large, a Haitian ophthalmologist and member of the French-language International Association of Art Critics.

"The art of the voodoo temple, for example, has some very explosive qualities which we today consider in some ways to be ultra-modern."

"Jackson Pollock and his shamanistic splatter painting," says Large, who delivered the eulogy at Stevenson Magloire's funeral. "And the voodoo priest going into a trance creating a veve (five-pointed symbol) on the temple floor are not, after all, that far removed."

By Michael Deibert
For Lifestyle - Reuters
"Haitian Artists Find Viewers and Buyers Online"
Mon July 29,10:15 AM ET
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters)
Copyright©2002
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020729/lf_nm/haiti_art_dc_1
Yahoo News - Lifestyle
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=811
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Reuters
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ArtMedia Haiti
http://www.artmediahaiti.com
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The History of ArtMedia Haiti

Lori Manuel Steed, daughter of highly recognized Haitian artist Michele Manuel, an Artist herself, founded Galerie Metisse in 1989. Encouraged by Issa El Saieh of Galerie Issa, Francine Murat of Le Centre d'Art, Michel Monnin of Galerie Monnin, and also by Jonathan Demme who in 1991 helped her organize the exposition that put Galerie Metisse into full gear. Galerie Metisse's primary focus has been the promotion of Haitian art and artists inside and outside of Haiti.

Birgit Coles is an American who was born in New York of German parents. She was possessed by Haitian art the moment she stepped foot in Haiti six years ago. Her research into the potential of the new communications technologies for the promotion and distribution of Haitian art throughout the world led her to join Lori Manuel Steed.

InterMedia is The Haitian Internet Communications Network founded in 1997 by Haitian professionals from the technology, banking, publishing and communications sectors.

InterMedia is the creator of Haiti Global Village, Haiti's premier online community, dedicated to the Haitian people throughout the global village. InterMedia is also the creator of Port Haiti, the first, most highly developed and visited Haitian Search Engine, referencing over 1,900 Haitian sites.

InterMedia welcomes more than 320,000 visitors a month to the over 250 Internet sites, containing over 8000 pages of information, news and content it designs, develops and maintains, which are devoted to
Haiti and the Haitian People throughout the world.

Lori Manuel Steed and Birgit Coles shared the dream for creating an online Gallery.Their partnership with InterMedia allowed it to become a reality. Today, after eleven years of experience organizing art exhibits throughout the United States and Europe, Galerie Metisse has joined InterMedia in creating ArtMedia Haiti, The Center of Haitian Art.

We invite you to get in touch with us for any questions, suggestions or to express your needs, via the online contact form provided here or at any of the addresses below.

Thank You,

ArtMediaHaïti
More than a Gallery, The Center of Haitian Art.
http://www.artmediahaiti.com
info@artmediahaiti.com
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Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com
When Yahoo! was founded in 1994 by Stanford Ph.D. students, David Filo and Jerry Yang, it began as their hobby and has evolved into a global brand that has changed the way people communicate with each other, find and access information, and make purchases. Today, Yahoo! Inc. is the Internet's leading global consumer and business services company, offering a comprehensive network of essential services for Web users around the globe as well as businesses of all sizes. As the first online navigational guide to the Web, Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) is the leader in traffic, advertising, household and business user reach. Yahoo! is also the most recognized and valuable Internet brand globally, reaching over 237 million unique users in 25 countries and 13 languages.

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com
Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world’s media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. Reuters strength is its unique ability to offer customers around the world a combination of content, technology and connectivity. Its premier position is founded on a reputation for speed, accuracy, integrity and impartiality as well as continuous technological innovation.

ArtMedia
http://www.artmediahaiti.com
ArtMedia Haiti provides you with historical and timely information on the internationally renowned Haitian art scene. Here you will find a wide and varied selection of Haitian Art available for purchase as well as a vast amount of documentation on Haitian Art and the Artist who have made Haitian Art an International phenomenon.

InterMedia
http://www.intermediahaiti.com
InterMedia conceives, develops and maintains, from a technological and content perspective, over 300 Internet sites devoted to Haiti and to the Haitian People. The collection of InterMedia sites receive over 400,000 unique visitor sessions a month. Haiti Global Village and Port Haiti are listed in AOL, CNN, The Washington Post, The Un Wire, and in over 350 American and European search engines and on over 100 Haitian sites. Haiti Global Village has been selected by Nomade and Le Nouvel Observateur from among the 75,000 sites registered in Nomade as being one of The 200 Best Internet Sites in the World. InterMedia is a Verio Authorized Agent for Haiti. InterMedia is fully e-commerce enabled and currently manages four e-commerce sites. The InterMedia Network invites you to plant your flag on the Haitian Internet.

InterMedia
Founded in 1996
Suite 200 - Angle Rues Grégoire et Chavannes
P.O. Box 16042 - Pétionville, Haiti
http://www.intermediahaiti.com
info@intermediahaiti.com
Telehone: (509) 511-1314
Cellular: (509) 557-5290
Fax: (626) 608-3594

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