Frantz Zéphirin: The Messenger
&
Close to Home

 

Join us for an evening reception celebrating the opening of Frantz Zéphirin: The Messenger and our concurrent summer exhibition, Close to Home — a group presentation of South Florida artists.

Opening Reception

Saturday, June 6, 2026

5:30 – 7:30 pm

Free for Members/ $30 non-members

 

Frantz Zéphirin: The Messenger

The Messenger is the inaugural monographic museum exhibition dedicated to artist Frantz Zéphirin (b. 1968, Port-au-Prince, Haiti). While self-taught, Zéphirin was born into a lineage of painters that included his uncle, Antoine Obin, celebrated master of the Cap-Haïtien school. But in rejection of the Northern Haitian tradition of narrative painting grounded in Haitian daily life, Zéphirin created his own miniaturist style of painting, in which political history, Vodou spirituality and intensely decorative renderings of human animals converge.

The Messenger presents Zéphirin as a documentarian, recording the histories of both of the mortal realm and cosmic other. He is an Oungan (male Vodou priest) whose images have been created under the instruction of Zeïde Medji, a sea goddess who became his muse and turned him toward a universal iconography that fused human, animal, and divine forms. Since 1988, Zéphirin has painted over two thousand visions of underwater sirens under the guidance of Zeïde Medji, though he states that it is as if the paintings made themselves, the brushes and palette having mingled in his mind’s eye.

Simultaneous to the celestial visions that line his canvases, Zéphirin’s images are coupled with stories of ancestral and contemporary struggle: depictions of Haitian slavery and emancipation, Vodou’s uniquely syncretic belief system, depictions of his country’s ecological collapse in 2010 and its enduring battle to withstand devastation at the hands of gang violence.

Zéphirin’s paintings blur temporal and spiritual borders, echoing the Haitian Spiralist movement’s belief in cyclical connection between the living and the dead, the earthly and the cosmic. In works such as The Slave Ship Brooks (2007) and Les Esprits Indien en face Colonisation (2000) the artist reimagines the transatlantic passage and the struggle for liberation through symbolic encounters between spirits and ancestors. Through a synthesis of myth and reportage, Zéphirin situates Haiti not at the margins of history, but at its pulsing center, with the artist’s painting as witness and oracle to the diasporic world.

This exhibition is curated by Ariella Wolens, Bryant-Taylor Curator at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.

Frantz Zéphirin: The Messenger is sponsored by Funding Arts Broward, Inc.

 

Close to Home

Close to Home brings together artists from the South Florida community whose creative source is their private world and the emotional ties that most intimately define them. The exhibition concept emerged from a growing recognition of artists in the region presenting work that depicted or functioned as an homage to those closest to them: fellow artists, romantic partners, chosen family, kin, ancestral lineage, and loved ones who have passed.

The exhibition considers how in this moment, artists grappling with questions of subject matter and meaning in their work, have increasingly turned toward the central importance of relationships—recognizing how supportive, collaborative, memorial, and transformative bonds can serve as catalysts for vital creative expression.

In South Florida – a place defined by cultural convergence – artists are propelled by inclusionary networks of mutual encouragement, in which the close nature of the creative community fosters an environment for dialogue and support.

The presentation includes a variety of approaches, from direct portraiture to allegorical depictions, and a range of material forms, from textiles to activated sculpture. The exhibition also brings together multiple generations of artists, underscoring the enduring nature of intimacy as a creative force. Close to Home affirms that the artmaking process does not take place in isolation, but inevitably drawn from shared experience, and serves to remind us that vulnerability is a conduit to empathy.

This exhibition is curated by Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator, Ariella Wolens, Bryant-Taylor Curator and Sinai Rivera, Guest Curator.

 

Exhibiting artists:

-Susan Kim Alvarez (b. 2000, Honolulu, HI; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Josh Aronson (b. 1994, Toronto, Canada; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Francie Bishop Good (b. 1949, Bethlehem, PA; lives and works in Fort Lauderdale, FL)
-Leo Castañeda (b.1988, Cali, Colombia; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Mark Delmont (b. 1990, Miami Gardens, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-FriendsWithYou (Sam Borkson, b. 1979, Plantation, FL; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and Arturo Sandoval III, b. 1976, Havana, Cuba; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA)
-Kandy G Lopez (b. 1987, Bayonne, NJ; lives and works in Fort Lauderdale, FL)
-Jared McGriff (b. 1977, Los Angeles, CA; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Leah Mendez (b. 1999, Miami, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Richard Moreno (b. 1993, Miami, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Reginald O’Neal (b. 1992, Miami, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Papou (b. 1989, Chicago, IL, lives and works in Broward County, FL)
-Qadir Parris (b. 2004, Miami, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Piero Penizzotto (b. 1998, Queens, NY; raised in Sunrise, FL; lives and works in New York, NY)
-Cheryl Pope (b. 1980, Chicago, IL; lives and works in Miami, FL and Chicago, IL)
-Lulu Sanchez (b. 1992, Miami Beach, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Zoe Schweiger (b. 2000, Miami, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Onajide Shabaka (b. 1948, Cincinnati, OH; lives and works in Miami, FL)
-Roscoè B. Thické III (b. 1981, Miami, FL; lives and works in Miami, FL)

 

Exhibitions made possible by Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant Foundation Exhibition Fund.

 

From left to right:

Frantz Zéphirin, Ceremonie Zeïdes Medji La Mère des Erzulies (Ceremony of the Zeïdes Medji, the Mother of the Erzulies.), 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24 inches, Copyright the artist, courtesy of CENTRAL FINE and El-Saieh.

Piero Penizzotto, Kings of Comedy (Chris, Imani, Bernard, Calvin, Dre), 2024. Papier-mâché, foam and acrylic. Photography by Oriol Tarridas. Courtesy of the Artist and Primary.

 

Major support for NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is provided by the David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation Endowment, the City of Fort Lauderdale, Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant Foundation, Wayne and Lucretia Weiner, Broward County Cultural Division, the Cultural Council, and the Broward County Board of County Commissioners, sponsored in part by the State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts, Community Foundation of Broward, Lillian S. Wells Foundation, the Wege Foundation, Beaux Arts of Fort Lauderdale, The Hudson Family Foundation, Delia Moog, Charles and Laura Palmer, Dr. Barry and Judy Silverman, and Friends of NSU Art Museum. NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.