“I think we all wear some kind of mask. There are masks that shield us from others, but there are masks that embolden us, and you see that in carnival. The shiest child puts on a mask and can do anything and be anybody.”

— Edwidge Danticat, quoted from the book “After the Dance: A Walk Through Jacmel Carnival”

Opening February 12, 2026, Haiti Cultural Exchange, Vizyon Atistik is pleased to present JAKMÈL | The Unveiling of Kanaval. An exhibition exploring the historical, artistic, and cultural significance of Jacmel’s Carnival in Haiti.

Curated by HCX fellow Yvena Despagne and Executive Director Régine M. Roumain, this exhibition examines Carnival as a vital form of cultural expression and underscores the importance of its history for members of the Haitian diaspora and broader global audiences. Through visual art, mixed media, and cultural storytelling, the exhibition highlights why Jacmel’s Carnival is not only a cornerstone of Haitian cultural identity, but an essential history for the Haitian diaspora to learn, preserve, and pass on.

Renowned worldwide for its elaborate papier-mâché masks, political satire, and community driven artistry, JAKMÈL | The Unveiling of Kanaval is more than a celebration, it is a living archive of survival stories, memory, and self-expression. Born from Haiti’s revolutionary past and shaped by generations of local artisans, the carnival has long served as a platform for social commentary, collective healing, and cultural pride.

On view from February 12 through March 29
Haiti Cultural Exchange
35 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY

Visit the HCX Gallery to view this exhibition and join the artists & curators at activations taking place as part of this exhibition. 

Thur. February 12 | 6-9pm
Opening Reception: Jakmèl: The Unveiling of Kanaval
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Sat. February 28 | 3-5pm
Papier-mâché Workshop
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Sat. March 7 | 4-6pm
An n Pale with Steven Baboun, Charles Philippe Jean-Pierre, and Lori Martineau
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Sat. March 14 | 3-5pm
An n Pale with Tania L. Balan-Gaubert, Bacheler Jean-Pierre, Christina Rateau, and Kedler St-Hilaire (Virtual)
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Sat. March 28 |  4-6pm
Closing Reception: Jakmèl: The Unveiling of Kanaval
RSVP Here » 

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About The Exhibition

JAKMÈL | The Unveiling of Kanaval tells the story of a people who have always used art as a language of survival and freedom. Migration, displacement, and generational distance have often disrupted the transmission of traditions like Carnival. This exhibition is about honoring that legacy and ensuring it remains visible, especially for those in the diaspora who may feel disconnected from Haiti’s cultural history.

Through paintings, sculptural works, archival materials, and contemporary interpretations, this exhibition bridges past and present, showing how Jacmel’s Carnival continues to influence global art, and political expression while remaining deeply grounded in local community traditions. For the Haitian diaspora, the exhibition emphasizes the urgency of cultural preservation and reclamation. By engaging with Jacmel’s artistic practices and historical narratives, the exhibition encourages diasporic audiences to reconnect with their roots and recognize Carnival as a powerful symbol of identity, and continuity of Haitian culture.

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Featured Artists

Steven Baboun | Website

Steven Baboun is an artist, photographer, and creative director from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, based in New York City. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media Arts and a minor in Education Studies from American University, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Parsons School of Design. Baboun works in photography, video, performance, textile + multimedia installation, and design. Currently, Baboun is the founder and creative director of Studio Baboun, a creative house based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the co-founder and CEO of NativRoots Collective, a creative agency specializing in visual production and solutions across entertainment, nonprofits, live experiences, and businesses.

Tania L. Balan-Gaubert | Website

Tania L. Balan-Gaubert is a conceptual artist, cultural producer, and writer based between  Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY) and Shikaawa (Chicago, Illinois). Her practice weaves together personal narrative, diasporic memory, and speculative world-building, moving through histories of displacement and survival while honoring practices of belonging. 

Born to Haitian parents on the Council of the Three Fires and Miami lands of present-day Illinois, she was raised between Chicago’s South Side and Brooklyn’s Flatlands neighborhood. These geographies continue to shape her artistic practice, which is guided by Haitian, African, and Indigenous traditions. Working across mixed media, installation, photography, painting, and social practice, she assembles found objects, folklore, craft, and spirituality into hybrid forms that move between the material and immaterial. Her work creates spaces where ancestral memory intersects with contemporary experience and where imagination becomes a tool for reclamation and transformation.

Bacheler Jean-Pierre | Website

Miami-based artist Bacheler Jean-Pierre, known for his love of the statement “NOTHING VENTURED NOTHING GAINED”, diversifies self-expression through mediums of music, art, architecture, and fashion. His Caribbean Afro-beat vibe invites you in for a closer look at the personal journey navigating and embracing the essence of an ambitious creative. His creations reveal an intimate rendition of one’s highest self, initiated through strife and strength. 

As a survivor of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, Bacheler’s will to live cultivates a continuing freedom to establish uniqueness conveyed in his visionary works. Bacheler’s belief in the power of words speaks to vibrations of expansion and growth. His loyalty to being a student of creation demonstrates the voyages in humility of the shadow self thus validating art as “a reason to triumph” where consciousness evolves.

Charles Jean-Pierre | Website

Charles Philippe Jean-Pierre is a Haitian-American artist groomed on Chicago’s south side. Charles Philippe Jean-Pierre’s most tangible connections to his Haitian roots were the paintings and sculptures in his family’s home. He often overheard passionate debates on abuses of power and continual regression in Haiti, but the art that hung on their walls were beautiful contradictions to his homeland’s hopeless narrative. The stark contradictions of beauty and power, as a theme, are ever-present as a theoretical and methodological struggle within Jean-Pierre’s overall body of work. 

His art and work has been featured at many institutions, including the U.S. State Department; the U.S. Embassy in Cotonou, Benin; the Obama White House; The Smithsonian; the Mamelodi Project; and International Monetary Fund. His work has been highlighted by numerous media outlets including: The Washington Post, Ebony Magazine, Black Enterprise, NHK Japan, The Village Voice, BET, NBC, Netflix and FOX. Jean Pierre holds a Masters of Arts from Howard University and has created public art murals in South Africa, Panama, New York, Chicago, Washington, Istanbul, Montreal, Port-au-Prince, London, and Paris. He is currently a professor at Howard University in Fine Arts.

Lori Martineau 

Lori Martineau is a writer, aspiring mermaid and creativity junkie. Her professional background is in Education and Expressive Arts Therapy. Born and raised in the Pearl of the Caribbean, her work revolves around a ceaseless curiosity in Haiti’s oral history and cultural traditions. Martieau’s fixation on capturing the tiny pieces of larger stories began with her first camera in her youth documenting the bustling activity of Mache Petyonvil. Martineau was exhilarated by the small moments within the mache’s buzzing activity – piles and piles of merchandise and food, every color, smell, and noise imaginable, and humans moving like foumi fou. She remains fascinated by Haitian culture bearers and her images are a collection of bearing witness to little moments within expansive Kanaval traditions. Lori can be found hopping a flight to soak in water, managing a Haitian restaurant in New Orleans or spending quality time with her home in Haiti.

Christina Rateau | Website

Christina Rateau, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is a visual artist and photographer based in Amsterdam. With a background in Economics from Donghua University (Shanghai, China), her journey spans modeling, creative direction, and analogue photography, reflecting her passion for storytelling and self-expression. Her practice, Occhio del Ciclone (“The Eye of the Storm”), explores identity, memory, and cultural heritage through conceptual, tactile narratives. Drawing on her Haitian roots and global experiences, Christina crafts evocative works using analogue photography, bold colors, and portraiture, often featuring self-portraits to explore themes personally.

Christina’s work has been featured in Photovogue and The New York Times and debuted her first solo exhibition in 2022 at Studio Baboun. She has also participated in group shows like Our Collective Future at Kunstlinie (Almere, Netherlands) and many other shows in Indianapolis. Committed to preserving Haiti’s cultural heritage, Christina aims to inspire strength and belonging in her audience while empowering the Haitian community and the Black diaspora. Her goal is to serve as a cultural archivist, amplifying Haiti’s stories and traditions for future generations.

Kedler St-Hilaire | Website

Kedler St-Hilaire is a Haitian visual artist and graphic designer whose artistic approach lies at the crossroads of formal rigor and chromatic emotion. A graduate of the École Nationale des Arts (ENARTS), he has developed a singular visual language where line, structure, and color interact. Art is neither decorative nor passive: it is a vital necessity, an act of affirmation and resistance against a world often marked by social and moral bleakness. He is driven by a clear mission: to bring originality, dignity, and meaning to places where degradation prevails.

St-Hilaire trained at the Centre d’Art and continues his artistic research by studying tattoo, enriching his visual and textural vocabulary. St-Hilaire is also an accomplished graphic designer, having collaborated with several leading institutions including CARE Haiti, LEGS ÉDITIONS, FOKAL, the Pyepoudre Cultural Center, the Festival 4 Chemins, La Famille Joseph, and Pascale Théard Créations. Based in Carrefour, St-Hilaire, stands out as a unique voice in the contemporary Haitian art scene, building worlds that are colorful, structured, and profoundly human. 

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With sculpture works provided by the Tequila Minsky Private Collection