Sergine André

Following technical art training at the Ottawa School of Art in 1997, she won a prize with the Institut Français and the opportunity to work at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris as a guest artist.

In 2006, she participated at the Johannesburg Bag Factory in South Africa (as guest artist) and in 2011 at the 54th Venice Biennale.

In her art, Sergine draws heavily from childhood, living deep in the countryside of the Artibonite region of Haiti.

This was a rural world where there was little electricity, ties to the land were intimate, nature was omnipresent and the rustling of trees or the vivid night skies evoked a spirit world, simultaneously both troubling and serene.

Her art conveys those otherworldly feelings and sensations which others do not easily perceive.

Recurring themes are the invisible (those who pass through life but are unseen) restlessness, the afterlife and the joy of living.

Her work is also powerfully informed by a searching curiosity and continuous exploration of the world in which we live.

Her work has been exhibited in North America (including New York, Miami, Pittsburgh, Saint Augustine, Montreal and Washington DC), the Caribbean (Haiti, Martinique, Dominican Republic), various cities in Europe (including Paris, Berlin, Venice, Brussels, Lyon, Luxembourg) as well as in Johannesbourg, South Africa.

Sergine Andre (‘Djinn’), born in the Artibonite region of Haiti, is an artist who has lived and worked in Brussels since 2010.

Her paintings express an identity that straddles two worlds.

Her imagination draws from both the magical-spiritual tradition of her home region and the Haitian artistic avant-garde and in her paintings she brings together contrasting themes such as life and death, light and shadows.