Across several mediums, Vladimir Cybil Charlier employs a visual diasporic language, one that melds symbolic and cultural elements from Black cultures in the United States and Caribbean. Born in Queens, New York, to Haitian parents, Vladimir Cybil Charlier grew up equally between Port-au-Prince and New York. Charlier describes the influence of cultural elements from both locales on her artistic practice as “In the space in between those two geographic spaces, in the dialogue itself, that the energy and the exchange really reside.”1

Trained as an oil painter, Charlier’s discovery of an allergy to solvent, a common additive used to thin paint and clean brushes, propelled her toward other mediums, mainly mixed-media sculpture. During her residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem from 1996 to 1997, Charlier created the installation In Between Waters (Endezo), which initiated a lifelong exploration of in-between-ness and the validity of embracing disparate cultures into a cohesive visual lexicon. Her resulting bodies of work showcase Black cultural markers of the Caribbean and the United States, thereby challenging viewers to rethink these countries’ histories from a diasporic perspective. A devoted practitioner of Afro-diasporic religious and spiritual traditions, Charlier often infuses visual symbols of the Haitian voodoo religion in her projects. 

Charlier’s work has been featured in the 2006 Venice Biennale; the Biennial del Caribe in the Dominican Republic (where she won the solo exhibition prize); the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador; and the Panama Biennial, all in 2003. She holds a BFA from Queens College and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Prior to her residency at the Studio Museum, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.