Artists

Myrlande Constant is a pioneering Haitian textile artist celebrated for her transformative approach to drapo Vodou—beaded and sequined ritual flags traditionally used in Vodou ceremonies. Beginning her career in the early 1990s within a male-dominated tradition, Constant revolutionized the form by incorporating intricate glass-bead embroidery, expanding both its scale and expressive capacity. Her technique, rooted in the tambour stitch she first learned in a wedding dress factory, has since become a hallmark of contemporary Haitian textile art.

Constant’s large-scale, densely beaded tableaux—often stretching over two meters wide—merge sacred and secular imagery. Vodou deities, Christian saints, and ancestral spirits appear in her works alongside motifs from everyday life, musical culture, and Haitian history. By weaving together myth, religion, and lived experience, she describes her practice as “painting with beads,” a mode of visual storytelling that challenges gendered traditions and affirms the cultural vitality of Haiti. Her workshop, where she has trained numerous apprentices, has further broadened access to the art form, opening new pathways for women artists in particular.

Her work has been featured in The Milk of Dreams, the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), and in solo exhibitions including Drapo at Fort Gansevoort, New York (2023) and The Work of Radiance at the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles (2023). Constant’s art has been presented internationally at institutions such as the Barbican Art Gallery (London), the Grand Palais (Paris), Nottingham Contemporary (UK), and the Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco). Her work resides in major collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Pérez Art Museum Miami; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; RISD Museum, Providence; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.