Clifford Jean-Félix is a Haitian-born Canadian painter. He was raised in a family that greatly valued the arts, taking an early interest in drawing and painting. In 1992, at the age of 20, he moved to Canada and some months later, began to study interior design. He worked as an interior designer for the following ten years.
In 1997, a very serious accident sparks an extensive personal and artistic transformation in Clifford that spurs the development of the style, vision and production methods that characterize all his paintings to this day.
Clifford Jean-Félix is immediately and warmly embraced by Montreal’s artistic scene. In November 2004, the artist and his works find a permanent home at the Galerie Saint-Dizier, and his arrival is celebrated with the launch of his first catalogue and a solo opening. New achievements quickly follow: the artist is added to the permanent roster of four other Canadian galleries in Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary; he presents, for more than a month, a solo exhibit at the International Headquarters of Cirque du Soleil and at Montreal’s TOHU – one of the world’s foremost gathering places for circus production and performance; and he is featured in Parcours magazine where his paintings are described as “a mixture of serenity and elation, a call to discover others as they are.” New exhibitions continue to be presented in Canada and the United States and at the threshold of the fifth anniversary of his painting career, Clifford Jean-Félix is determined to have his art shine forth across the continents.
The art of Clifford Jean-Félix is sometimes associated with surrealistic impressionism. Esthetically, his works typically display a vibrant luminosity, a wide palette of colors, a full integration of relief and texture effects, and the recurring presence of slender figures with no distinctive feature other than a vaguely human form. These elements combine to create an intense, at times troubling energy – an energy that evolves constantly with each change in lighting or the viewer’s moods. The canvas is not where these works are laid; it is where they come to life.
Clifford Jean-Felix’s paintings radiate with an aura of authenticity and humanity, free of all artifice. Those who allow themselves to sense it inherit the key to his artistic and creative life. For Clifford, painting is primarily a spiritual act. His works give viewers the opportunity to embark on a very personal voyage of discovery, even as they experience an intimate connection with some of the most universal aspects of our human experience. As a result, each person has the opportunity to develop, in his or her own way, a kinship with the characters that live in Clifford’s colorful, painted universe. Such a kinship is the tangible expression of Clifford’s message: “When people open their hearts, they open themselves to the union of all human races; they accept our primary essence, generous and full of light; they agree to become one with the Universe; and most importantly, they choose to belong to the civilization of the future – the world of the Enlightened.”