FRANTZ ZEPHRIN

Zephirin’s paintings show a reality that commemorates and remains at odds with itself. A deity becomes a giraffe, a zebra, and a fish. A war scene converges with a chorus in ecstasy, and an orgy emerges from two humanoid faces built by leaves. In Frantz Zephirin work’s, rhythm seems to indicate the undulation of meaning beyond the parameters of logic. Dreams and offerings merge, and a retelling of tradition and invention are told by the mind of a painter, that is also, a voodoo priest. His work often depicts ‘The Invisible Ones (The Loas)’ mutating into animals, plants, and humans. This decision signals a profound change in the re-presentation of voodoo deities. Unlike Andre Pierre and many of his followers, (who gave faces to the representation of voodoo deities with their specific syncretic actions and attributes), Zephirin’s figures transcend those attributes, and are seen in a state of becoming. We witness an expansion of the religious into the realm of art, moving beyond the space of illustration, venturing into the tension of the transformative and the reality of initiations.   

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 included la Biennale di Venezia’s “The Milk of Dreams” curated by Cecilia Alemani; 2022. A solo presentation of his work opened in March 2022, at the Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts; curated by Tomm El-Saieh.  

*Excerpt from text by Tomm El-Saieh, Viktor El-Saieh, Hunter Osking, and Diego Singh