BIO
Vladimir Cybil Charlier is a New York-based multi-disciplinary artist. She was born in Queens, New York, to Haitian parents and grew up between New York City and Port-au-Prince, an experience that continues to inform her work. She earned a Master’s in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts and attended The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Trained as a painter, Cybil has delved into many artistic mediums. Over the years, her work has focused on developing a cohesive language to articulate a diasporic culture and the search for that language has been the thread linking her different bodies of work, whether mixed-media paintings, prints, or three-dimensional work. Early on, Cybil started mining various forms of popular art and crafts from the Caribbean, looking at self-taught painting traditions, textile work, as well as the spiritual traditions and sacred art forms of the African diaspora; in essence rethinking these traditions within a diasporic perspective.
Recent bodies of work include Pantéon, When the Saints Go Marching! which explores how the Afro-diaspora developed a visual lexicon as a means of adapting to unfamiliar and unforgiving conditions. Her Old World/New World painting series piece seemingly disparate cultural references and textures into modernist compositions. These works weave together personal histories with markers from both Caribbean and American cultures, generating a complex narrative for the viewer to decipher. For example, the blue jeans, boots, and straw hats that are recurrent images in the paintings can be read equally as iconic cultural markers that belong to American cowboys or as the sacred attributes of Zaka, the deity of agriculture in Haitian Vodou. The duality and ambiguity leave viewers to ponder how they personally construct meaning.
Cybil’s artistic practice also encompasses public work and has completed a recent commission for JCC (Jewish Community Center) of Harlem which is now part of their permanent collection.
Cybil has been a resident at the Studio Museum in Harlem and more recently, at Fountainhead studios in Miami. Her work has been featured in the 2006 Venice Biennale and exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio and The Bronx Museum. Cybil participated in the Biennial del Caribe in the Dominican Republic, the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador, and the Panama Biennial in 2003. Her work has been included in Le Grand Palais in Paris and shows such as Relational Undercurrents at MOLA, Bordering the Imaginary at BRIC House, Caribbean Crossroad at the Perez Museum in Miami, and a solo exhibit at Five Myles Plus Space. A lifelong educator, Cybil lectures regularly and recent talks have included the LASA congress in Boston, Columbia University, Rutgers University, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Notre Dame University.
She currently resides in Harlem and works from her studio in an old indigo mill
Trained as a painter, Cybil has delved into many artistic mediums. Over the years, her work has focused on developing a cohesive language to articulate a diasporic culture and the search for that language has been the thread linking her different bodies of work, whether mixed-media paintings, prints, or three-dimensional work. Early on, Cybil started mining various forms of popular art and crafts from the Caribbean, looking at self-taught painting traditions, textile work, as well as the spiritual traditions and sacred art forms of the African diaspora; in essence rethinking these traditions within a diasporic perspective.
Recent bodies of work include Pantéon, When the Saints Go Marching! which explores how the Afro-diaspora developed a visual lexicon as a means of adapting to unfamiliar and unforgiving conditions. Her Old World/New World painting series piece seemingly disparate cultural references and textures into modernist compositions. These works weave together personal histories with markers from both Caribbean and American cultures, generating a complex narrative for the viewer to decipher. For example, the blue jeans, boots, and straw hats that are recurrent images in the paintings can be read equally as iconic cultural markers that belong to American cowboys or as the sacred attributes of Zaka, the deity of agriculture in Haitian Vodou. The duality and ambiguity leave viewers to ponder how they personally construct meaning.
Cybil’s artistic practice also encompasses public work and has completed a recent commission for JCC (Jewish Community Center) of Harlem which is now part of their permanent collection.
Cybil has been a resident at the Studio Museum in Harlem and more recently, at Fountainhead studios in Miami. Her work has been featured in the 2006 Venice Biennale and exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio and The Bronx Museum. Cybil participated in the Biennial del Caribe in the Dominican Republic, the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador, and the Panama Biennial in 2003. Her work has been included in Le Grand Palais in Paris and shows such as Relational Undercurrents at MOLA, Bordering the Imaginary at BRIC House, Caribbean Crossroad at the Perez Museum in Miami, and a solo exhibit at Five Myles Plus Space. A lifelong educator, Cybil lectures regularly and recent talks have included the LASA congress in Boston, Columbia University, Rutgers University, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Notre Dame University.
She currently resides in Harlem and works from her studio in an old indigo mill
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Creation platique d'haiti. Art et culture visuelle en colonie et postcolonie, Editions de la Maison des sciences des hommes, Carlo A. Celius, 2023
The Deja Vu, Gabrielle Civil, Coffee House Press, 2022
Teaching Haiti, Edited by Cecile Accilien and Valerie K. Orlando, University of Florida Press, 2021
Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics, Arlene Davila, Duke University Press, 2020
Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora, Hutchins Center for African and African American Art
Research, Harvard University, Indiana University Press, Issue I27/2019
Tatiana Reinoza, “The Island Within the Island: Remapping Dominican York,” Smithsonian Institution, Museum of the Art, Archives of American Art, Fall 2018
Maximiliano Duron, “Columbia University Starts “Uptown” Triennal for artist Living and Working in Upper Manhattan,” Art News, 5/22/17
ArtForum, “Columbia University Organizes New Triennial for Artists Based in Upper Manhattan,
May 22, 2017
Rene Larrier & Ousseina Alidou, "Writing Through the Visual/Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and
Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean,” Lexington Books, 2015
Tatiana Flores & Michelle Stephens, “Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean
Archipelago,” MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art, Duke University Press, 2014
Kreyolicious, “Brushes and a canvas: an interview with the Painter Vladimir Cybil Charlier on her life as a
visual artist,” 2014
Carlo A. Célius, Musee du Quai Branly, No 21, “Introduction,” and “Quelques aspects de la nouvelle
scène artistique,” Gradhiva, Nov. 2014
Regine Estime, “Haiti, deux siècles de création artistique,” exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais,
p102-103, Nov. 2014
Michelle Stephens, “Gestures Beyond Local Color: A Caribbean Calligraphy,” ARC Magazine, May 2013
“Vladimir Cybil Charlier, une calligraphie caribéenne,” January 2014, Le Nouvelliste, (Translated in
French By Jean Francois Avin)
Michelle Stephens, Translated by Jean Francois Avin “Gestures Beyond Local Color:
A Caribbean Calligraphy/, May 2013
Gabrielle Civil, “Tourist Art,” The Caribbean Writer: Ayiti/Haiti Volume 25, silver anniversary edition, 2011
Holland Cotter, “Négritude,” The New York Times, July 2nd, 2009
“52nd Biennale Di Venezia, A world Widephoto tour in the Studios of the Major Artists,” L’Uomo Vogue, June 2007
When the Saints Go Marching in, Small Axe, No 18, September 2005, pp 52-56
André Juste, "The Politics of Paradise: Reinventing the Art of the Haitian Art Market," OGT Gallery
(exhibition essay), May 2005
Jerry Philogene, Vladimir Cybil, Bomb Magazine, No 90, Winter 2004/2005
Virginia Perez-Ratton, Iconofila o Iconomia, Iconofagia-Bienal de Cuenca, (exhibition catalog),
June 2004
Jerry Philogene, Visual Narratives of Cultural Memory and Diasporic Identity: Two Contemporary
Haitian American Artists, Small Axe, No 16, September 2004
Jaime Ceron, The 5th Biennial that looks to the Caribbean, Art Nexus, No.52, Volume 3, 2004
Holland Cotter, "National Black Fine Art Show," New York Times, January 29, 1999
André Juste, "Haitian Art: Responses to National Identity," Encarta Africana (2 CD-ROM disks) edited
by Henry Louis Gates and Kwame Anthony Appiah, Microsoft, January 1999; (book ) June 1999
André Juste, Romancing the National: On Vladimir Cybil’s Art, (exhibition essay), Galerie Bourbon Lally,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, December 1999
Gérald Alexis et al., "Haiti au Toit de la Grande Arche," 142-page catalog, Paris, France, August 1998
"Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe," Intituto de Cultura Puertorriquena,
San Juan, Puerto Rico, (exhibition catalog), February 1998
"1 Encuentro International Grabado en Pequeno Formato," (55-page catalog) Fundación de Arte Nouveau,
April 1997, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Pam Tilles, "From The Studio: Artists in Residence, 1996-1997,” (curator’s essay), The Studio Museum in Harlem, N.Y., July 1997
Jared Mc Allister, "Haitian Focus at the Studio Museum," Daily News, April 20, 1997
Lydia Yee, Marisol Nieves, Introduction, Artist in the Marketplace 1996-1997," The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, N.Y. (Exhibition catalog also contains V. Cybil’s artist’s Statement.)
André Juste, Vladimir Cybil, History, Our Story, (curators’ essay), Grace Gallery, NYC Technical College, Brooklyn, N.Y., February 1996
Carol Damian, "Haitian Art Today," Art Nexus, January 1996
Elisa Turner, "Changes Images of Haitian Art," Miami Herald, June 1995
Carol Damian, "Contemporary Expressions of Haitian Art," (20-page catalog) Miami Arts Center, 1995
André Juste, "Grafting Identities" (curator’s essay), Paramount Upper Gallery, Peekskill, N.Y. Feb. 1993
Creation platique d'haiti. Art et culture visuelle en colonie et postcolonie, Editions de la Maison des sciences des hommes, Carlo A. Celius, 2023
The Deja Vu, Gabrielle Civil, Coffee House Press, 2022
Teaching Haiti, Edited by Cecile Accilien and Valerie K. Orlando, University of Florida Press, 2021
Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics, Arlene Davila, Duke University Press, 2020
Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora, Hutchins Center for African and African American Art
Research, Harvard University, Indiana University Press, Issue I27/2019
Tatiana Reinoza, “The Island Within the Island: Remapping Dominican York,” Smithsonian Institution, Museum of the Art, Archives of American Art, Fall 2018
Maximiliano Duron, “Columbia University Starts “Uptown” Triennal for artist Living and Working in Upper Manhattan,” Art News, 5/22/17
ArtForum, “Columbia University Organizes New Triennial for Artists Based in Upper Manhattan,
May 22, 2017
Rene Larrier & Ousseina Alidou, "Writing Through the Visual/Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and
Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean,” Lexington Books, 2015
Tatiana Flores & Michelle Stephens, “Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean
Archipelago,” MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art, Duke University Press, 2014
Kreyolicious, “Brushes and a canvas: an interview with the Painter Vladimir Cybil Charlier on her life as a
visual artist,” 2014
Carlo A. Célius, Musee du Quai Branly, No 21, “Introduction,” and “Quelques aspects de la nouvelle
scène artistique,” Gradhiva, Nov. 2014
Regine Estime, “Haiti, deux siècles de création artistique,” exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais,
p102-103, Nov. 2014
Michelle Stephens, “Gestures Beyond Local Color: A Caribbean Calligraphy,” ARC Magazine, May 2013
“Vladimir Cybil Charlier, une calligraphie caribéenne,” January 2014, Le Nouvelliste, (Translated in
French By Jean Francois Avin)
Michelle Stephens, Translated by Jean Francois Avin “Gestures Beyond Local Color:
A Caribbean Calligraphy/, May 2013
Gabrielle Civil, “Tourist Art,” The Caribbean Writer: Ayiti/Haiti Volume 25, silver anniversary edition, 2011
Holland Cotter, “Négritude,” The New York Times, July 2nd, 2009
“52nd Biennale Di Venezia, A world Widephoto tour in the Studios of the Major Artists,” L’Uomo Vogue, June 2007
When the Saints Go Marching in, Small Axe, No 18, September 2005, pp 52-56
André Juste, "The Politics of Paradise: Reinventing the Art of the Haitian Art Market," OGT Gallery
(exhibition essay), May 2005
Jerry Philogene, Vladimir Cybil, Bomb Magazine, No 90, Winter 2004/2005
Virginia Perez-Ratton, Iconofila o Iconomia, Iconofagia-Bienal de Cuenca, (exhibition catalog),
June 2004
Jerry Philogene, Visual Narratives of Cultural Memory and Diasporic Identity: Two Contemporary
Haitian American Artists, Small Axe, No 16, September 2004
Jaime Ceron, The 5th Biennial that looks to the Caribbean, Art Nexus, No.52, Volume 3, 2004
Holland Cotter, "National Black Fine Art Show," New York Times, January 29, 1999
André Juste, "Haitian Art: Responses to National Identity," Encarta Africana (2 CD-ROM disks) edited
by Henry Louis Gates and Kwame Anthony Appiah, Microsoft, January 1999; (book ) June 1999
André Juste, Romancing the National: On Vladimir Cybil’s Art, (exhibition essay), Galerie Bourbon Lally,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, December 1999
Gérald Alexis et al., "Haiti au Toit de la Grande Arche," 142-page catalog, Paris, France, August 1998
"Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe," Intituto de Cultura Puertorriquena,
San Juan, Puerto Rico, (exhibition catalog), February 1998
"1 Encuentro International Grabado en Pequeno Formato," (55-page catalog) Fundación de Arte Nouveau,
April 1997, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Pam Tilles, "From The Studio: Artists in Residence, 1996-1997,” (curator’s essay), The Studio Museum in Harlem, N.Y., July 1997
Jared Mc Allister, "Haitian Focus at the Studio Museum," Daily News, April 20, 1997
Lydia Yee, Marisol Nieves, Introduction, Artist in the Marketplace 1996-1997," The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, N.Y. (Exhibition catalog also contains V. Cybil’s artist’s Statement.)
André Juste, Vladimir Cybil, History, Our Story, (curators’ essay), Grace Gallery, NYC Technical College, Brooklyn, N.Y., February 1996
Carol Damian, "Haitian Art Today," Art Nexus, January 1996
Elisa Turner, "Changes Images of Haitian Art," Miami Herald, June 1995
Carol Damian, "Contemporary Expressions of Haitian Art," (20-page catalog) Miami Arts Center, 1995
André Juste, "Grafting Identities" (curator’s essay), Paramount Upper Gallery, Peekskill, N.Y. Feb. 1993
BIBLIOGRAPHY LINKS
Tatiana Flores & Michelle Stephens, “Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago,” MOLAA: Landscape Ecologies – Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago (9/16/17 to 3/4/2018): http://www.artealdia.com/Pacific-Standard-Time-LA-LA/MOLAA-presents-Relational-Undercurrents-Contemporary-Art-of-the-Caribbean-Archipelago
Jerry Philogène, Hemispheric Institute, “Wrapped in Images and the Materiality of Art Practices: Vladimir Cybil Charlier, Sasha Huber, and Pascale Monnin”: https://hemisphericinstitute.org/en/emisferica-121-caribbean-rasanblaj/12-1-dossier/e-121-dossier-philogene-wrapped-in-images.html
Kat, Kreyolicious: “Brushes and a canvas: an interview with the Painter Vladimir Cybil Charlier on her life as a visual artist”: https://kreyolicious.net/vladimir-cybil-charlier/15165
Carlo A. Célius, Gradhiva: https://www.cairn.info/revue-gradhiva-2015-1-page-104.htm
https://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=23999
René Larrier, "Writing Through the Visual/Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean,” :
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ph5BCwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA185&lpg=RA1-PA185&dq=vladimir+cybil+charlier&source=bl&ots=4fHYkgBudC&sig=h7pBeGj69WZfs5O9hyVx0s80aMw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNwP7VubPZAhXFMd8KHfoOAuE4FBDoAQgoMAA#v=onepage&q=vladimir%20cybil%20charlier&f=false
Michelle Stephens, “Gestures Beyond Local Color: A Caribbean Calligraphy,” ARC Magazine, May 2013 “Vladimir Cybil Charlier, une calligraphie caribeenne,” January 2014 Le Nouvelliste, (translated in French by Jean Francois Avin):
(Part 1, French) http://lenouvelliste.com/article/124949/vladimir-cybil-charlier-une-calligraphie-caribeenne-premiere-partie
(Part 2, French) https://lenouvelliste.com/article/126552/vladimir-cybil-charlier-une-calligraphie-caribeenne-deuxieme-partie-partie
(Part 3, French) http://lenouvelliste.com/article/126554/vladimir-cybil-charlier-une-calligraphie-caribeenne-troisieme-partie-partie
Jasmine Espert, “Made Vulnerable,” Small Axe Visualities:
http://smallaxe.net/sxvisualities/archive/vladimir-cybil-charlier
André Juste and Vladimir Cybil Charlier: “Recasting Paradise,” Skoto Gallery,
New collaborative works (2009): http://www.skotogallery.com/SPT-0-91-default-Andre-Juste-and-Vladimir-Cybil-Charlier-Recasting-ParadiseNew-collaborative-works
Tatiana Flores & Michelle Stephens, “Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago,” MOLAA: Landscape Ecologies – Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago (9/16/17 to 3/4/2018): http://www.artealdia.com/Pacific-Standard-Time-LA-LA/MOLAA-presents-Relational-Undercurrents-Contemporary-Art-of-the-Caribbean-Archipelago
Jerry Philogène, Hemispheric Institute, “Wrapped in Images and the Materiality of Art Practices: Vladimir Cybil Charlier, Sasha Huber, and Pascale Monnin”: https://hemisphericinstitute.org/en/emisferica-121-caribbean-rasanblaj/12-1-dossier/e-121-dossier-philogene-wrapped-in-images.html
Kat, Kreyolicious: “Brushes and a canvas: an interview with the Painter Vladimir Cybil Charlier on her life as a visual artist”: https://kreyolicious.net/vladimir-cybil-charlier/15165
Carlo A. Célius, Gradhiva: https://www.cairn.info/revue-gradhiva-2015-1-page-104.htm
https://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=23999
René Larrier, "Writing Through the Visual/Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean,” :
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ph5BCwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA185&lpg=RA1-PA185&dq=vladimir+cybil+charlier&source=bl&ots=4fHYkgBudC&sig=h7pBeGj69WZfs5O9hyVx0s80aMw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNwP7VubPZAhXFMd8KHfoOAuE4FBDoAQgoMAA#v=onepage&q=vladimir%20cybil%20charlier&f=false
Michelle Stephens, “Gestures Beyond Local Color: A Caribbean Calligraphy,” ARC Magazine, May 2013 “Vladimir Cybil Charlier, une calligraphie caribeenne,” January 2014 Le Nouvelliste, (translated in French by Jean Francois Avin):
(Part 1, French) http://lenouvelliste.com/article/124949/vladimir-cybil-charlier-une-calligraphie-caribeenne-premiere-partie
(Part 2, French) https://lenouvelliste.com/article/126552/vladimir-cybil-charlier-une-calligraphie-caribeenne-deuxieme-partie-partie
(Part 3, French) http://lenouvelliste.com/article/126554/vladimir-cybil-charlier-une-calligraphie-caribeenne-troisieme-partie-partie
Jasmine Espert, “Made Vulnerable,” Small Axe Visualities:
http://smallaxe.net/sxvisualities/archive/vladimir-cybil-charlier
André Juste and Vladimir Cybil Charlier: “Recasting Paradise,” Skoto Gallery,
New collaborative works (2009): http://www.skotogallery.com/SPT-0-91-default-Andre-Juste-and-Vladimir-Cybil-Charlier-Recasting-ParadiseNew-collaborative-works