"I’m certain that the barbershop tradition will never end, because we will still cut hair. As long as we cut hair, it will never die. There will always be beauty salons and barbershops."—Michel Lafleur (@lafleurmichellibre) Michel Lafleur is a painter hailing from Grand Rue, the main north-south artery of downtown Port-au-Prince. Lafleur began his career as an apprentice in a studio painting tap taps—lavishly painted taxi buses that serve as a vital form of public transportation in the city, which often feature portraits of famous individuals on their exteriors. Eventually, Lafleur moved on to freelancing, painting portraits for barber shops and salons in downtown Port-au-Prince. The city's innumerable barbershops are not only fundamental to the city’s social cohesion, but are unique artistic objects in their own right. For PÒTOPRENS, our 2018 exhibition at PW, Lafleur painted a set of newly commissioned portraits for an installation in the garden paying tribute to Port-au-Prince’s barbershops. Organized by Richard Fleming, the installation replicated an actual barbershop, providing visitors the opportunity to get a haircut from a Haitian barber. Read more about the artists that make up the polyphonic metropolis that is Haiti's capital city in PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince, available at the product tag or via the link in bio. #PWPress 🔖 #MichelLafleur #PÒTOPRENS #Haiti #PortauPrince #sculpture #foundobjects #assemblage #contemporaryart #haitianartists #artbooks #independentpublishing