About Us

 

Josepha Dumas is a Haitian French multidisciplinary artist based in Tiothià:ke|Montreal, Canada, whose vibrant and evocative creations invite viewers to explore themes of displacement, identity, and cultural memory. With a background in painting, drawing, experimental video, sound art, and mixed media, Dumas weaves together stories that celebrate the richness of Haitian culture while sparking intercultural dialogue.

Since graduating from Concordia University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, She has exhibited work across Montreal, Spain, South Korea, Germany and beyond. Through bold colours, videos, sounds, and recycled materials, her art bridges historical and contemporary narratives, creating immersive experiences that resonate with global audiences.

This online shop offers an exclusive selection of original artwork, prints, and custom pieces, reflecting Josepha Dumas’s dedication to fostering connection and creativity.

 

Biography

credits to Qauffee

 

Josepha Dumas is a Haitian French multidisciplinary artist based in Tiothià:ke|Montreal since 2013. Born in Haiti with a French nationality and raised across Miami, Germany, and Montreal, she brings a unique global perspective to art. Her work explores themes of displacement, migration, identity, and cultural memory, weaving historical and contemporary narratives into richly layered, immersive experiences.

Drawing from her multicultural upbringing, she primarily works with drawing and painting, incorporating vibrant colors, textiles, recycled materials, experimental video, sound, and mixed media into her practice. She also works under the aliases Mme. Blue for music and Impro.VIE for experimental video and sound, further expanding her multidisciplinary approach.

A graduate of Concordia University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts specializing in painting and drawing with a minor in Film Studies, Josepha Dumas has exhibited her work internationally, including at the CICA Museum in South Korea (2022–2023), the virtual Capital Culture House in Madrid (2023), and Inselgallerie in Berlin (2024). Her art has been featured in Haitian publications such as Sibelle Haiti, IMedia Ayiti, and Le Nouvelliste, as well as in Canadian platforms like Com c’est nous!, Renowned, and Circe magazines, and on several book covers by author Pierre Raymond Dumas.

She has received Research and Creation grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, supporting her innovative projects. Notably, her recent work, Echoes of Time, was an interdisciplinary exploration of space, time, and memory within the Haitian Diaspora, culminating in a dynamic installation. She also completed a two-month residency at Centre d’arts de la Maison d’Haïti, where she created a 33-portrait painting accompanied by a collective poem and documentary. Through her current residency (January to March 2025) at Kunstraum LLC in Brooklyn, she continues to celebrate the richness of Haitian culture, fostering intercultural dialogue while deepening her experimental approach to art.

 

Artist Statement

 

My art is a journey through fragments of memory, identity, and the landscapes of cultural history. Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, I grew up surrounded by vibrant colors, textures, and stories that sparked my creativity. When I was eight, tragedy struck: two of my uncles were assassinated, leading to my family’s migration to Miami, Florida. This marked the first of many shifts in my life, each layering my understanding of displacement, belonging, and identity.

Growing up between Haiti, Miami, Germany, and Tiothià:ke|Montreal, I have always felt both a part of and apart from my surroundings. As a Haitian-French woman, I often questioned whether I belonged. Was I too Black to be white? Too white to be Black? These questions lingered as I navigated new countries, cultures, and languages, fueling my exploration of themes such as duality, parallel worlds, and the fluidity of space and time.

At the heart of my practice is a commitment to experimentation and intuition. I create immersive installations that combine painting, drawing, sound, video, poetry, and found objects to explore the intersections of personal and collective experiences. My work bridges the emotional landscapes of grief, love, memory, and identity, asking how we can exist in two places simultaneously—physically in one space while emotionally tethered to another.  Projects like Echoes of Time are born from a desire to understand and reconstruct the narratives that shape diasporic identities, particularly within the Haitian community. Using sound and space as mediums, I sculpt temporal bridges that link personal memories with collective cultural stories.

Film has greatly influenced my approach due to my minor in Film Studies at Concordia University. When I approach a painting or drawing, I think in cinematic terms visualizing each painting or drawing as a scene--- considering mise en scène, composition, and lighting to create a specific mood. Is it sad? Bright? Hopeful? I carefully consider them to evoke contrasts: night and day, heat or cold, Spring or Fall, here and there. My paintings often merge multiple landscapes, blending countries and cultures into layered, dreamlike spaces that reflect the complexities of diasporic life.

Music and sound are integral to my work as well. Since 2018, I have been a self-taught music producer, layering Afro beats, jazz, rock, and classical influences to create multisensory experiences. Sound, like paint, is a material I use to shape emotional resonance, enveloping viewers in narratives that extend beyond visual boundaries.

Through my art, I seek to unravel personal stories while connecting with broader, shared histories. My ongoing questions are both intimate and universal: Where do we belong? Can we create homes within new spaces? How do we navigate the duality of being both here and there?

My practice celebrates the richness of diasporic identities while fostering dialogue about migration, cultural memory, and belonging. By weaving together personal reflections and collective stories, I aim to create spaces where viewers can confront their own echoes of displacement and find connection in shared experiences. For me, the question is no longer, “Am I here or there?” but rather, “How can we be everywhere—and one?”

 

 

 

CV

Education

SEPTEMBER  2013 - JUNE 2018

Concordia University, Montreal, Qc - Bachelor in Fine Arts

Majoring in Painting and Drawings with a minor in Film Studies. 

Work Experience

October 2024 - present

Renovation, carpentry, painting. Contract job. Montreal, Qc, Canada

January - April 2024 - ongoing 

Mixed-media art teacher at the Visual Arts Center, contract job, Montréal, QC, Canada.

September 23rd - December 9th 2023

Mixed-media art teacher at the Visual Arts Center, contract job, Montréal, QC, Canada.

June 19th-August 18th 2023

Art monitrice for summer camp, Visual Arts Center, contract job, Montreal, QC, Canada.

March- June 2023

Artist teacher and assistant, Visual Arts Center, contract job, Montreal, QC, Canada.

June 2020 - May 2022

Masonry laborer, apprentice level 2. Maçonnerie 2.0 in. Montreal, Qc, Canada

March 2019- December 2021

Co-creator, photographer, videographer, and artist for ArtIci/Encorps/Fruit Baskets, an art collective that made art accessible in public places such as parks throughout Montreal QC, Canada. 

February 2019- June 2021

Printmaking artist assistant, contract job, Le Studio P.M INC, Paul Machnik, Montreal Qc.

August 22nd 2019

Videographer, Editor, Producer, and Director for In SPirit(ed), hosted by project 10, contract job, Centre Culturel Georges Vanier, Montreal Qc.

July 2018- March 2020

Photographer and Editor, freelance, ONaturelOils, Montreal, Qc.

July- August  2018

Ceramic artist Assistant, contract job,  Pascale Girardin Ceramic Studio, Montreal Qc (July-Aout 2018)

April 30th- June 2016

Filmmaker and editor, contract job, Imago Theatre ARTISTA, Montreal, Qc, Canada.

Art residencies

2025

Three months residency at Kunstraum LLC.  January - March 2025. Brooklyn, NY, USA.

2024

Two months residency at Centre D'arts Maison d’Haïti. February to the end of March 2024. Montreal, QC, H2H2G3.

Final grant research presentation

2024

Echoes of Time, curated by me, is the final installation of a six-month (April to September 2024) grant research project funded by Canada Councils of the Arts, September 29th, 2024,  183 Chemin Bates, 2nd floor, Montreal, Qc, Canada.

 

Group Shows/Performance Art

2024

Fresh Legs, June 06- July 29th, Inselgalerie Berlin and Galleri Heike Arndt DK, Berlin, Germany.

Festival Afro Urban. Presentation of my 2-month residency project, amongst many other artists, for the 6 edition of the Festival Afro Urban at the Art Center of Maison d'Haïti, 03/22-24/2024. Montreal, Qc, Canada.

Dekabès.  February 16th, 2024. Presented by BAM.IND. Maison d’Afrique, Montreal QC, Canada 

2023

Live performance of my second single "Come On" under my alias Mme.Blue at La Shop for AKT ii 1st edition. July 2023. Montreal, QC, Canada.

Masked, March  15th to April 2nd, 2023, CICA Museum, South Korea.

2022

Portraits 2023, December 28th to January 15th, 2023, CICA Museum, South Korea.

Wonder Exhibition, Capital Culture House. Virtual. Madrid, Spain.

2022-2019

En Corps/Art Ici - Art Collective, Montreal, Qc Minimum 3 events/art shows every year throughout various parks and communities in Montreal.

2021

Locating The Quixotic Tourist, painting by Paul Nadeau and Sean Wilson. Performed An Island Full of Ghosts. 2010 rue Cartier Montreal, Qc

Le Dessin et Contemporain au-delà du réel de Réjeanne Lamothe, Documentary, 30min. Performance. Montreal,Qc

2020

Buscando Memoría, 5 min video. Performance art, 2 hours. Collaboration with Mauricio Aristizabal, in protest with Colombia, Movimiento Por La Vida. 

2019

Show and Tell: A Night Of Performance, Props, and Anything Else. Hosted and directed Penina Simon. Co-director by Alo Azimov. Performed Voyage, an excerpt of a Drunk-Short-Story-Poetry-Book/song/poem. Mainline Theater, Montreal, QC.

All Over The World, Visual Arts, College Brebeuf, Montreal, QC

 

Grants/Nominations/Awards

2024

Research and creation grant for upcoming art residency in Brooklyn, NYC from January to March 2025, for Explore and Create, Canada Council of the Arts. 08/28/2024. Montreal, QC, Canada.

Emerging artist award from Maison D’Haiti Art Center, 03/24/2024. Montreal, QC, Canada.

Research and creation grant from April to the end of September 2024 for Explore and Create, Canada Council of the Arts. 02/29/2024. Montreal, QC, Canada.

2023

Selected as a featured artist on Artinsquare website.  

2022

Certificate of artistic merit by La Pinacothèque - Luxembourg Art Prize 2022, Luxembourg. 12/01/2022.

Finalist Award from Art Show International Gallery for the "5th Landscapes Competition"

Honorable mention for Dance and Movement open call by Entrepreneur.

2021

CALQ grant for En Corps/Art Ici. An art collective I co-created and I was a part of from 2018 to 2022

Events/Public Art/Collaboration

September 28-29-30th 2023

Sound artist (under my alias improVIE) in collaboration with Julien Sicre for Festival des arts numériques, Mile End skatepark, minute_MAPP,  Montreal, QC, Canada.

2022-2019

En Corps/Art Ici - Art Collective, Montreal, Qc Minimum 3 events/art shows every year throughout various parks and communities in Montreal. Temporary installations.

2021

Buscando Memoría, 5 min video. Performance art, 2 hours. Collaboration with Mauricio Aristizabal, in protest with Colombia, Movimiento Por La Vida.  Temporary installations/performances.

 

Workshops/Presentation

2024

Four 2-hour Mural workshops under the theme Nous aussi on est le Québec (We are also Quebec). July 11th, July 18th, July 25th, and August 1st. Maison d’Haïti, Montreal, QC, Canada.

2023

Art workshop in dialogue with PHOSPHOS, a light installation by Paul Chambers on June 10th and 17th at MAI’s - Montréal, arts interculturels - gallery. Montreal, QC, Canada. 

Le Dessin à travers la narration et l'improvisation (Drawing through narration and improvisation), Presentation for Mascayiti, Vil Pam Orijinal Concours, online, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 11 2023.

2020

Volunteered Printmaking - etching and monotype- Workshop for  Inuit, and Indigenous women, but not limited to Chez Doris (a shelter for homeless women) Managed to do 3 to 5 workshops in March 2020 before the COVID-19 lockdown. 1430 rue Chomedey, Montreal, Qc 

Music

January 3rd 2024

Composer, songwriter, and producer for three singles. Tell me, As time passes, and Stay as an ode to someone who I admire and inspires me. Experimental, alternative, electro music. Under my alias Mme. Blue.

November 28th 2023

Composer, songwriter, and producer for Blue reminds me of you, an Album, under my alias Mme. Blue. 14 songs. Experimental, alternative, electronic, classical, rock music… A birthday gift to myself.

September 29th 2023

Blue Reminds Me of You, is the first single from my album under the same title, under my alias Mme. Blue. Experimental, alternative music. 7:04mins.

July 2022

Come On! is the first single with lyrics that I released. 4:00min. Experimental, alternative, punk rock music.

August 11th 2021

The Blue Lune's Glow is my first instrumental song to be released under my alias Mme. Blue and all the platforms. 15:28mins. Experimental classical tropical blues music.

 

Affiliations/ Judge

2023 

Judge for Concours Vil Pam Orijinal  (My Original City) de Masayiti, group 7-12 ans, online, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

2022-2019

En Corps/Art Ici - Art Collective, Montreal, Qc 

Member at Skol Gallery, Montreal QC 

 

Bibliographie/Publications 

2024-25

Drawing for article Les Cerveaux Migrateurs par André Lachance.  Com1, Septembre 2024, #13. Montreal, Qc, Canada.

Two-page interview "Josepha Dumas: L’artiste des frontières" about my work featured in COM1 Magazine N°10 for the International Day of women. Written by Jean Bart-Souka March 2024. Montreal, QC.b(Pg. 16-17)

Some of my artworks have been selected to be featured in Renowned Magazine's next edition. The magazine will be split into four and will be printed starting December 2023  to 2025.

My painting Blakawout Limyè will be on the cover of Pierre Raymond Dumas’s upcoming book “Le Livre de la Démocratisation Chaotique d'Haïti”. 

2023

Three page interview "Josepha Dumas - L'art de dépeindre l'identité, l'immigration, la (dé)colonisation…." about my work featured in COM1 Magazine N°6 for the international day of women. Written by Jean Bart-Souka March 2023. Montreal, QC.b(Pg. 14-16)

One of my artworks is printed in Circe Magazine. Edmonton, Canada. (pg. 48)

2022 

One of my art is in 7500 copies of Concordia University's 2022-23 agenda. Student Union. "On The Edge Tilting vers La Lune" 

“Six Portraits”, Six Book Covers, Collections Monographies by Pierre Raymond Dumas

Press Files/Reviews

2024

COM1 N°10 By Jean-Bart Souka (Montreal)

2023

COM1 N°6 By Jean-Bart Souka (Montreal)

2022

Sibelle Haiti by Lord Edwin Byron 

IMedia Ayiti by Rosny Ladouceur

Le Nouvelliste by Marc Sony Ricot

Le National by Schultz Laurent Junior

Artistic Practice 

A multidisciplinary approach combining painting, experimental video, sound art, and mixed media, focusing on themes of identity, migration, and cultural memory.

Skills

• Painting and drawing
• Photography
• Mixed media installation 
• Sculpture, ceramic
• Renovation, carpentry, masonry.
• Animation, digital art
• Spoken word, performance art, and poetry
• Music, sound, and video projection
• Microsoft 365, Excel, Flipaclip, InShot, Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro
• Using Ableton live, GarageBand, and video/animation softwares