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Levoy
Exil was born on December 7, 1944, in Fermate, Haiti.This master of the
Saint Soleil school has favorite subjects to portray - the sun, doves as
symbols of peace, and women as the source of creation. He attended art classes
from the school of Saint Soleil. His paintings consistently depict various
loas and voodoo deities. Levoy’s paintings are highly regarded around
the world and amongst art collectors. Some people say he is so possessed
when he is painting that one would say he is mounted by the loas. He has
held exhibitions in Haiti, the United States, Japan and Europe. Illustrations
of his work can be found in Gerald Alexis’ book “Peintres Haitiens”
and Selden Rodman’s book “Where Art is Joy”. |
| Levoy
Exil was said by Haitian art authority Selden Rodman to have kept “Haitian
art from succumbing to the popular realism so greatly in demand since the
triumphs of Rigaud Benoit and Wilson Bigaud in the forties.” Levoy
Exil, after the school of Saint Soleil disbanded, reorganized the group
into “Cinq Soleil” (Five Suns). According to Rodman, Levoy Exil
is the best lyrical of the five great Saint Soleil artists. His paintings
seem to abhor even a centimeter of blank space. Sometimes using a pointillist
technique of tiny dots, perhaps to suggest a galaxy of planets, Exil is
personally apolitical and unconcerned with who’s the head of the government.
He is content to live with his family in Soissons la Montagne, in the misty
mountains far above Port-au-Prince, sing to his cherished voodoo gods and
paint his visions beloved by the outside world. Among the numerous exhibitions
to feature Exil’s work was “Haiti: Art Naif, Art Vaudou”
at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais in Paris in 1988. |
