Conversations on Collecting

This ongoing series builds on Griffin Art Projects’ mandate to share privately held art collections with the public. Join Griffin Art Projects in conversation with collector Yves Pierre-Louis and gallerist Hugues Charbonneau for a virtual discussion on alternative art-collecting economies. Yves Pierre-Louis is a Haitian-born Canadian whose widowed father emigrated to Canada in the late 60’s as part of the wave of Haitian professionals who fled Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier’s dictatorship. Though his family did not collect artworks, they always appreciated and celebrated the visual arts that are such a hallmark of Haitian culture. He has expanded on that tradition through collecting art, and his fervent wish is that his legacy will inspire future generations of Pierre-Louis to continue what he has begun. In 1988 he purchased his first artwork, a mixed media montage created by a friend’s brother. He started thinking seriously about building a collection when he visited Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, where he acquired his first painting by Manuel Mathieu. He is now primarily focused on collecting works by Afro-descendant artists with whom he feels a connection, and with whom he tries to develop relationships to support their practice. Hugues Charbonneau was born in Montréal-Nord in 1975. He began his career in the visual arts at the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides and then at Esse magazine. He founded his gallery in 2012. Galerie Hugues Charbonneau is a contemporary art gallery based in downtown Montreal. Its exhibition program celebrates the cultural diversity and the innovative potential of contemporary metropoles. The gallery accompanies artists, curators and collectors through exhibitions within its walls, public artworks, art fairs and collaborations with museums and biennials. Collaborators of the gallery have exhibited at the Venice Biennial, the Dak’art Biennial, the Whitney Museum, The Power Plant and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, among other institutions.