The Lafleur & Bogaert duo brings together two distinct worlds. Michel Lafleur, a Haitian portrait painter locally known for his elaborate decorations in Port-au-Prince barbershops, originally trained to paint the façades of tap taps, Port-au-Prince’s famously ornate small buses. Tom Bogaert is a Belgian artist, formerly a human rights lawyer with extensive experience in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
The two artists would likely never have met without The Ghetto Biennale, a creative institution launched in 2009 that pairs international artists with artists from the Grand Rue neighborhood, gathered in a group known as Atis Rezistans (resistance artists). Working together since 2013, Lafleur & Bogaert is the most enduring collaboration to emerge from that event.
Lafleur & Bogaert’s art responds directly to the realities on the ground, often incorporating found objects and materials. Driven by a concern for justice, their artistic practice engages with the precarity of the present and the ills of history. They have developed their own artistic language, exploring these themes with resourcefulness and humor. Their collaboration, polyphonic and dynamic, embodies a playful cultural syncretism that obeys no preconceived rules.
Lafleur & Bogaert gained international recognition for their acclaimed projects with Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale at Documenta 15 in the St. Kunigundis church, receiving enthusiastic praise from both international and local media. In 2023, their work contributed to Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale being awarded Exhibition of the Year by the International Association of Art Critics in Germany.
At the invitation of Sammy Baloji, Lafleur & Bogaert participated in the 2024 edition of the Biennale of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their subsequent retrospective exhibition at the Verbeke Foundation in Belgium featured selected collaborative works spanning from 2013 to the present, as well as a special presentation of their recent “J’aime RD Congo” project, created for the Biennale de Lubumbashi.
Lafleur & Bogaert are honoured to have received a project subsidy from the Flemish government in Belgium for both 2025 and 2026. In addition, they have been named 2025 Artistic Research Initiative (ARI) Fellows, supported by the Mellon Foundation at Duke University in the United States.
For 2025, alongside their debut US solo exhibition at Frosch & Co Gallery in New York City, Michel Lafleur and Tom Bogaert participate in the 2025 International Triennale of Textile in Łódź, Poland, the Lubumbashi Biennale exhibition at Galerie Imane Farès in Paris, France, and the 6th Edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, opening in December 2025.
Lafleur & Bogaert will present their traveling “J’aime RD Congo” project at the White Cube of the Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC) in Lusanga, DR Congo, in 2026.
Exhibitions
2026
︎︎︎Residency – Art Omi – Ghent, US
︎︎︎Kanaval Zanzèt Yo – 8th Ghetto Biennale – Ellesmere Port, UK
︎︎︎Lafleur & Bogaert – White Cube CATPC – Lusanga, DR Congo (solo)
2025
︎︎︎Lafleur & Bogaert – Frosch&Co Gallery – New York City, US (solo)
︎︎︎Toxic Lands, Living Narratives – Galerie Imane Farès – Paris, France
︎︎︎Deconstruction / Reconstruction – International Triennale of Textile – Łódź, Poland,
︎︎︎For the Time Being – Kochi Muziris Biennale – Kochi, India
︎︎︎Budapest Contemporary – Bálna – Budapest, Hungary
︎︎︎J’aime Kolwezi – Sauti ya Macho Festival – Kolwezi, DR Congo
︎︎︎Social Practice Lab – Nasher Museum of Art – Durham, US
2024
︎︎︎Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale – Utah Museum of Contemporary Art – Salt Lake City, US
︎︎︎Lafleur & Bogaert – Verbeke Foundation – Kemzeke, Belgium (solo)
︎︎︎Landscape of the Imagination – Watou Arts Festival – Watou, Belgium
︎︎︎Toxicity – 8th Biennale de Lubumbashi – DR Congo
2023
︎︎︎Ghetto Biennale – RISING – Melbourne, Australia
︎︎︎Summer Exhibition – Verbeke Foundation – Kemzeke, Belgium
︎︎︎Lafleur & Bogaert – Picha Art Center – Lubumbashi, RD Congo
2022
︎︎︎Lumbung – documenta fifteen – Kassel, Germany
︎︎︎What if not the World? – Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany
︎︎︎Swen Moun – 7th Ghetto Biennale – Port-au-Prince, Haiti
2019
︎︎︎The Haitian Revolution – 6th Ghetto Biennale – Port-au-Prince, Haiti
︎︎︎Creative Mosaic – Plaxall Gallery – Queens, NY
︎︎︎Wide Open – BWAC – Brooklyn, NY
︎︎︎Art at the Residency – Consulate General of Belgium – New York, NY
2018
︎︎︎Projects – Pulse Art Fair – Miami, FL
2017
︎︎︎A Cartography – 5th Ghetto Biennale – Port-au-Prince, Haiti
2015
︎︎︎Forms of Resistance – 4th Ghetto Biennale – Port-au-Prince, Haiti
2013
︎︎︎Decentering – 3rd Ghetto Biennale – Port-au-Prince, Haiti