We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Xayvier Haughton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Xayvier , appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I always had an interest in art, but I got serious about my practice at the age of 21.

When I enrolled in the Edna Manley School of Visual and Performing Arts, this signal for me a paradigm shift. I felt like I was exposed to an alternate reality “Art”. And coming out of the inner city community of Spanish Town Jamaica, Art was just a fantasy, a dream never to be realized. I saw for the first time the potential of community, I was a painter but my friend where musicians, dancers, actors. They would all gather to my studios, to create art and discuss ideas, current events, it was an amazing time. Within those interactions I began to find my voice as an artist my practice emerged and I was taking risk conceptually and formally. It happened in the most organic fashion and that’s when I knew that I was an artist and I wanted to work in an interdisciplinary fashion, I wanted to break the conventions and explore the gray areas that exists between the creative disciplines respectively.

Xayvier , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Xayvier Haughton, I am a Jamaican born artist living and practicing in New York, I was first introduced to the creative industry by my father who was a musician, at the age of five he would try to have me and my siblings rehearsing song trying to make us into musicians like him I guess.
But he soon notice my interest in drawing and after which he started to buy me art material and he would take me to the outdoor to have me practice drawing.
Things got more serious when he introduced me to his friend from College who was a ceramic artist named Uyuru. I was about eight years old, after school I would find myself at Uyuru’s house for my lessons. Though my first introduction to art was drawing I would soon find myself exploring other mediums namely clay. I think this is the reason why my work move so fluidly between medium to this day and this in a way I think sets me apart from others, as I am most comfortable working interdisciplinary.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

This is seeing the reaction of the audience to my work, to me whether they are in love or they find it disturbing it make me happy to have people engaging with my practice.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal as an artist is to disrupt the traditional fine arts/gallery spaces. As an Afro-Jamaican what I find is that there is not much representation within the arts form my community and this is my catalyst. I try to create spaces that draws on Afro-Jamaican spiritual practices as a kind of resistance to the post colonial narratives that drives the art world.

Contact Info:

• Website: XayvierHaughton.com
• Instagram: xayvierhaughton_pinaxe

Image Credits
Title: Annunciation of Taki Medium: Oil, photo collage, fabric rapped bottles on canvas. Dimensions: 48 x 96 inches Year: 2022