Day Brièrre creates deceptively textured digital illustrations harking back to Haitian traditions

Day Brièrre is a Haitian-born, Brooklyn-based multimedia artist whose work lands right at the junction between digital illustration and spiritual communion. Or, as Day puts it: “I am simply the vessel in which these ideas materialise.” Drawing inspiration from “Haitian diasporic visual art traditions, Net Art, the Arts and Crafts movement, sound art, surrealism, folklore”, among other sources, Day’s work is a broader meditation on heritage and history. “My work is an attempt to resist – maybe even counteract – assimilation,” she tells It’s Nice That.

That work, with its unmistakable matchbook texture, has a nostalgic tint. But, she doesn’t shy away from expressing “native forms, text and religious symbolism” through a vibrant colour palette – which can at times give it a holographic quality. This is probably a good thing as Day says she is looking to “create virtual realities with the same aesthetics”. For her, the use of these tactile textures is “a way of examining memory, homeland, the uncanny and dreamscape”. Which, as Day notes, is used to “re-create a world based on play, community and accessibility". While looking forward and backwards, she is steadfast about one thing: “As long as my art exists in the world, my heritage will too.”