Biography

Born in Port-au-Prince on January 6, 1976 - on Kings Day, in Haitian religious or Vodou culture - David Boyer had an atypical journey. His father, Yvon François, is a polyglot who speaks nine (9) languages. He left the country quickly in 1981 to live in Europe, amid rumors of arrest. Collector David Boyer did not live with his father, with whom he resembles like two drops of water. Nevertheless, he continues to check in on him regularly. His mother, Christiana Renaud, gave birth to him at the age of eighteen; he is the second son of the polyglot who now lives in Philadelphia, USA, and has since gotten married; however, it does not bear his signature, like his older brother, Yves Sinoë François. He was, for his part, recognized by his uncle, Gérard Boyer. However, a tragedy dominates his life: the absence of his father. He suffers from it. Grand Palais certainly represents, in his eyes, a summit; nevertheless, what excites him to produce is his dad, always alive in his imagination, but always absent in his life. This is so important in his own eyes that he sometimes leaves his work - he travels, to find himself alone, all alone with his dreams... “In 2007, he created an exceptional salvaged work: “Erzulie Dantor” purchased by a collector from Switzerland. In the composition, he used a piece of radiator to make Erzulie's face, a radiator which came from a carcass of a car he owned; for the nose, the hands, three forks, sewing thread to elegantly attach the buttons of the drapery adorning the outfit worn by the character, then frames, mirrors, - pieces of mirror, pieces of bottle, pieces of earthenware to completely construct the work. A paper image of Erzulie served as a model. This work opened his career as a salvager. Some of the Bel-Air artists also began using buttons. This trend extended to the artists of Carrefour-Feuilles. In addition, some Ghetto artists, at the Port-au-Prince cemetery, also use buttons and forks to say the fords, the dead.
. Cut out and detached from the body, an upside-down head of Christ, arms very relaxed, and above all a nail at the feet, as in El Greco's painting, invites meditation. However, this is his first invitation to Paris... David Boyer continues the line traced by the recyclers of the Grand-Rue, the André Eugène, the Céleur Jean Hérard who pushed the exploitation of garbage and waste to the extreme. For his part, he lets us understand, “I represent my country, my culture, my Bel-Air community.” “Besides,” he added, “today I am one of the few big names in contemporary art. » As an artist of recovery, he bases his work on almost nothing in terms of details: aluminum bowls whose bottoms he cuts to give birth to the faces of characters; like that of the king in the play “Rara” or that of “Christ” to talk about his most recent creations; computer or radio chassis; for computers, for example, he sculpts them, works on them to make them an integral part of the work. In this sense, it differs from other salvagers, some of whom let us see the collages in the development of their pieces; buttons
: at first, he was able to pick them up in the streets or under his mother's bed; but, as he progressed, he bought them in bulk from resellers coming out of clothing factories, in different sizes, in different colors. The presence of the buttons brings artistic value to the interior of the work. Contemporary art will rise on all the roofs of the Grand Palais on the occasion of this exhibition “Haiti: two centuries of artistic creations” to highlight the exceptional contribution of Haitian artists to the new adventure in which the country is embarking.