Exhibition - "Contemporary Visions of Frantz Zephirin: Haitian Mystic"

Frantz Zephirin is one of the leading contemporary artists working in Haiti today. A self-taught artist born in Cap Haitien in 1968, Zephirin has variously been described as a visionary, a surrealist, a visual satirist and an “historic animalist.” His work has been featured in museums and galleries around the world. After a very close call with the catastrophic 2010 Haitian earthquake, Zephirin immediately went back to work, recording his visions of a violently transformed world. His painting “The Resurrection of the Dead” was the arresting image chosen for the January 25th cover of The New Yorker magazine. Since the earthquake Zephirin has been featured in stories in the New York Times, Le Monde, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Times of London, the Guardian and the BBC. His visually stunning paintings, laden with Caribbean pattern and vivid color, feature diverse subject matter on history, politics, the environment, Christianity, and Haitian Creole culture.  There are layers of meaning in Zephirin’s anthropomorphic animal depictions, while modern notions of vodou are explored and, perhaps, dispelled. This illuminating collection is sponsored by the Polasek’s community partner, GladdeningLight, a spiritual arts nonprofit initiative based in Winter Park.  Zephirin and his art exhibit on view at the Polasek Museum will be featured as part of the 2017 GladdeningLight Symposium on January 26-29, 2017.  Please visit www.gladdeninglight.org for more information.