Invisible Friends

September 23-October 17, 2023

Opening September 24, 6-8 pm

Frantz Zephirin’s work examines invisibility, opacity, and identity formation in ways that go beyond self-representation by employing a layering that is charged with symbolic, social, and psychological resonance. A myriad of hybrid characters populates these paintings: A mermaid wearing a blazer and a dress stands next to a man in military wardrobe riding a horse, while skeletons and zebras merge into a chorus filled with dissonance, and countless rhythmic echoes.

In her writing on the Spiralist1 movement, Kaiama L. Glover writes that, “The Spiralists highlight the possibilities for un-mediated connections between the individual and the universe - connections that in many ways transcend the at-times limiting boundaries of national and, even, regional identity.” Spiralism finds solace in contradictions and connections, in its creation of cycles that feed back and forth into one another: from identity, to spirituality, and back. Zephirin’s work is considered part of the Spiralist tradition, since layers of realms stack upon one another, creating a type of fluidity that reveals complex systems of meaning and cohabitation.

Frantz Zephirin b.1968, Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Zephirin was awarded the Gold Medal in the Third Biennial of Caribbean and Central American Painting sponsored by The Museum of Modern Art of the Dominican Republic. His work was included in the V Biennial in Cuenca, Ecuador; the El-Saieh Gallery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, among other venues. His paintings were recently included la Biennale di Venezia’s “The Milk of Dreams” curated by Cecilia Alemani; 2022; Luhring Augustine, New York, and are currently on view at the NSU Art Museum, Fort Laudersdale.

1.-Spiralism is a Haitain literary movement that emerged in the mid-sixties. Frankétienne described Spiralism as “life at the level of relations (colors, odors, sounds, signs, words) and historical connections (positionings in space and time). Not in a closed circuit but tracing the path of a spiral.”