Echo of Acclaimed Miami Artist’s Work in Venice Reverberates at Betsy Hotel

“Ode to the Everglades” is one of 30 works in various media representing the past ten years of Miami-based artist Edouard Duval-Carrie’s career at The Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach in the exhibition “From Venice With Love.” (Photo by Carl Philipe Juste)

Artist Edouard Duval-Carrié has long sought to reveal and help rectify centuries-old wounds in his native Haiti, a country forever shaped by the African diaspora. First, he applies pressure, doubling down on history and politics. Then he applies beauty, both seductive and incensed.

Since Saturday, May 9, work by the Miami-based artist has been on view in the Central Pavilion at Venice’s Giardini as part of “In Minor Keys,” the 61st Venice Biennale’s international art exhibition, which continues through Sunday, Nov. 22.

In the wake of his selection for the Biennale, Duval-Carrié has sent a lavish postcard of sorts home to Miami. It is “From Venice with Love,” an exhibit in the Betsy Hotel gallery and in other spaces at the Miami Beach hotel.  It is curated by his longtime friend and collaborator Carl-Philippe Juste, a Haitian-born, Miami Herald photographer.

Caribbean scholar, curator and author Erica Moiah James devoted a chapter to Duval-Carrié in her 2025 book “After Caliban: Caribbean Art in a Global Imaginary,” published by Duke University Press. In a phone interview, she praises him for art “that has always centered the Caribbean. That centers Haiti. That values Haitian creativity. That understands the complexity of Haitian religious practices and worldviews.”

She sees his art as offering an affirming cultural “anchor” despite the country’s severe difficulties. “Edouard really demonstrates that in terms of the African diaspora, there is no past. The past is definitely a part of our present. It’ll be a part of the future.”

Miami-based artist Edouard Duval-Carrié’s work is included in the 61st Venice Biennale, which continues through Sunday, Nov. 22. A local companion to that exhibition, “From Venice with Love,” is in Miami Beach at The Betsy Hotel. (Photo by Carl Philipe Juste)

At The Betsy are some 30 works in various media representing the past ten years of Duval-Carrié’s career. It is meant to “echo,” rather than duplicate, the works in Venice, the artist and curator agree. Most were created exclusively for the hotel. They include paintings, engravings, video, and lightboxes.

There’s a luminous series of royal blue engravings presented with ornate flourishes, recalling styles favored by the French aristocracy. Some portray figures integral to the early history of the Haitian republic. And yet these engravings are informed by the artist’s signature subversive irony, incorporating French aristocratic styles to elevate Haitians bent on destroying French colonial power.

In the darkened BBar, 26 light boxes line the walls. They glow with striking images inspired by Haitian culture and history. Their abundant color is amplified by the presence of the BBar’s mirrored ceiling, and, as a result, at first it may seem that 52 lightboxes dominate the bar, creating an astonishing, immersive experience.

Edouard Duval-Carrié, “Damballah,” mixed media sculpture, 2026. “Damballa” is a 3-D printed version of his bronze sculpture on view in Venice. It represents the Vodou spirit of wisdom and peace, symbolized by serpents. (Photo by Carl Philipe Juste)

The tone throughout is both celebratory and defiant.

It’s defiant, says the artist, because “I’m always trying to redress the history of Haiti, to present the history of Haiti the way I see it.”

The country remains shaped by its historic slave uprising against French colonizers, becoming the world’s first free Black republic in 1804. For gaining independence, it was harshly punished financially.

What insights did Duval-Carrié bring home from Venice? He says the experience underscored that “It was time for the world to realize that Africa did have something to say. I mean, the influence of Africa in the modern world is evident everywhere, especially in the Americas.”

At The Betsy Hotel are some 30 works in various media representing the past ten years of Eduoard Duval-Carrié’s career including “Diamond Sirene,” one of a luminous series of royal blue engravings. (Photo by Carl Philipe Juste)

The exhibit at the Betsy, says Juste, is “very defiant because the dialogue we have in this country currently is the denial of that history or the burying of that history.”

For the artist to be among those chosen to be part of this Venice Biennale was a “radical decision,” placing “African culture in the European setting,” Juste says. In the Renaissance, Venice was “the center of the Western world.”  Showing art in Venice imbued with ties to Haiti and Africa, he continues, is “like equating Africa with the same sense of importance globally.”

As curator, he aimed to celebrate Duval-Carrié’s “pathway to Venice, his commitment to his craft, to his art.” The goal was to create a “palette” of glorious colors and textures reflecting the artist’s expansive practice. In that practice, the sacred arts of Haitian Vodou function as both lens and language, resonant with symbolism and multiple deities.

At The Betsy, several works directly evoke Vodou. “The Diamond Sirene” portrays a mermaid, floating in intensely blue water, her excessively large tail hovering like a weapon or anchor.  She’s the lwa, or spirit, of the sea, thought to control whether oceans are tranquil or stormy. “Damballa” is a 3-D printed version of his bronze sculpture on view in Venice. It represents the Vodou spirit of wisdom and peace, symbolized by serpents.

Other works move forward to the present by alluding to a despoiled environment. In “Soucouyant Blue,” Duval-Carrié reinvents a blood-sucking creature prevalent in Caribbean folklore with flamboyant lesions recalling toxic bacteria. The bleak shop drawing “Ode to the Everglades” is more dirge than ode.

In “Soucouyant Blue,” Edouard Duval-Carrié reinvents a blood-sucking creature prevalent in Caribbean folklore with flamboyant lesions recalling toxic bacteria. (Photo by Carl Philipe Juste)

The Betsy Orb supercharges his art with South Beach audacity and AI animation. During the day the colorless Orb suggests an egg on steroids, incongruously suspended behind the Betsy over the alleyway at 14th Street. It is actually an ingenious passageway linking the hotel to the neighboring Betsy-owned Carlton Hotel. But at night the Orb is designed to radiate a video projection pulsing with Technicolor luster.

To produce the video projection, Juste says he used clips of Duval-Carrié’s art animated with AI, enhancing the video with AI generated music “so his work literally comes alive,” he says.

The exhibit has been accompanied by free programs, coordinated by the Betsy’s Writer’s Room led by Deborah Putzik Briggs and FIU Public Humanities Lab director Rebecca Friedman. At 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22 is a cocktail reception at the Carlton Hotel followed by an 8 p.m. panel discussion “The Power & Realities of Collecting Haitian Art” at the Betsy gallery. Panelists are Duval-Carrié, New York University professor Edward J. Sullivan, and Pérez Art Museum Miami director Franklin Sirmans. Moderator is Rebecca Friedman.

Curator Carl Juste , says he used clips of Duval-Carrié’s art animated with AI, enhancing the video with AI generated music for the projections on The Betsy’s outdoor Orb. (Photo by Carl Philipe Juste)

After “From Venice with Love” closes at the Betsy, a new version of the exhibit moves to Little Haiti Cultural Center. Opening Friday, Dec. 4, this version will be significantly different from the Betsy’s exhibit, says Juste, who wants to bring Duval-Carrié’s accomplishments back home to the Haitian community. The artist’s studio will be recreated inside the center’s gallery, sharing company with works by artists Duval-Carrié admires as well as examples of his own art.

More versions of “From Venice with Love,” Juste adds, are in the planning stage for other Miami-Dade County communities.

“It’s not going to be the same experience at all locations,” he explains. “The attempt to connect with a community will come not only from Edouard’s work but the way he has engaged with that community through his art.

If we don’t engage with each other and try to see where we share common ground, we’re more apt to be engaged in erasure of each other’s culture. That common ground is so important.”

WHAT: “From Venice with Love,” an exhibition by Edouard Duval-Carrié

WHERE: The Betsy Hotel, 1440 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach

WHEN: Open 24 hours daily. Through Thursday, Nov. 15, 2026.

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (866) 792-3879 or www.thebetsywritersroom.com

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.