The new Manou Studio in Port-au-Prince, painted by Michel Lafleur, featuring a portrait of Rutshelle Guillaume
Michel Lafleur began his career as an apprentice to a decorator of Tap-Taps, the ornately painted, striped and muralized pickup trucks that serve as public transportation all throughout Haiti. Raised in the neighborhoods around downtown Port-au-Prince, a district of auto-body shops, mechanics, used tire dealers and artisans, he is responsible for decorating many of the most spectacular barbershops in the area of Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines, better known simply as the “Grand Rue.” Lafleur is associated with Atis Rezistans, the collaborative of Grand Rue sculptors who host Port-au-Prince’s “Ghetto Biennale” and he has brought his painterly skills to numerous collaborations with international artists.
To order a portrait by Michel Lafleur please check the Commissions page for details and contact information.
Work from the atelier of Michel Lafleur.
Lafleur holds a photo of his self-portrait, originally painted on a Grand Rue area barbershop / A Lafleur commission for a hair salon in Jeremie / Usher on a Jacmel shop
An environmental anthropologist who divides her time between New Jersey and Newfoundland asked Michel to create this painting as an eightieth birthday present for her man.
Commissioned by the partner of a Vienna Producer-Director whose original program was “Tribe Vibes” Radio.
Lafleur in his Port-au-Prince atelier at work on his portrait of a Brooklyn filmmaker. The client requested the inclusion of the barber’s tools of the trade in the background.
This client requested the addition of text reading, in Haitian kreyol, “You need a haircut.”
More commissioned work by Michel Lafleur.