Levoy exil
Biography
Levoy Exil (born 1944), is a master Haitian artist and painter; he is one of the main contributors to the Saint Soleil art movement.
Levoy Exil first worked as a farmer, like his father, before turning to masonry. In 1970, Levoy Exil met Jean-Claude Garoute and Maud, who founded the Saint-Soleil group in his native village.
He became part of this movement along with painters such as Louisiane Saint Fleurant, Antilhomme, and Prospère Pierre Louis.
When the Saint-Soleil project lost momentum, Levoy Exil founded Les Cinq Soleils (Louisiane Saint Fleurant, Denis Smith, Paul Dieuseul, Levoy Exil, and Prospère Pierre Louis).
He later exhibited in more than 57 countries, including the United States, Japan, Israel, and several in Europe. He was welcomed in Nancy and then in Paris at the National Galleries of the Grand Palais for the 1988 exhibition “Art Naïf, Art Vaudou.
Awarded the Millennium Medal in 2000 at the Salon d’Art Plastique in La Rochelle, he has also maintained a strong presence in the United States and Japan, and he recently took part in the prestigious 44th edition of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington.
Despite his international success, Levoy Exil has not abandoned the simple life he loves; today, he divides his time between teaching his passion and painting. He also exhibited in 2009 at the Musée du Montparnasse in Paris for the exhibition “The Last Journey of André Malraux in Haiti.