Frito Bastien: Painting the Soul of Haiti – A Story of Resilience, Ritual, and Radiance
- Florcy Morisset
- Jun 11
- 3 min read
In the storied hills of Jacmel, Haiti — where the sea crashes into the cliffs and tradition is carried on the wind — a young boy named Frito Bastien sketched his world with quiet wonder and intensity. It started with scraps and surfaces — whatever he could find — because art wasn’t a hobby; it was a calling.
That calling brought Frito to the canvas at just thirteen, under the early mentorship of Haitian master Célestin Faustin, who didn’t so much teach him how to paint as give him the permission to unleash what was already inside. That’s the beauty of the Haitian art tradition — it honors instinct, memory, and storytelling. And Frito? He absorbed it all.
As a fellow Haitian and as the curator and founder of Vivant Art Gallery, I’m proud to say I own the oldest known collection of his works. His paintings were among the first pieces that gave Vivant its heartbeat — and to this day, they remain the soul of our collection.
Frito’s work speaks in a language we all understand — the language of memory and survival. Raised in Haiti’s southern coast and later resettled in Port-au-Prince, he learned carpentry and cabinet-making to support his family, blending artistry and craftsmanship — and sometimes even building hand-painted furniture. But his greatest tool has always been his imagination, fused with lived experience.
In 1991, political unrest forced Frito into exile after his activism made him a target of the tontons macoute, Haiti’s feared paramilitary forces. Two of his colleagues were assassinated. Frito fled, not knowing if his wife and children had survived. When he arrived in Philadelphia months later, he received word — they were alive.
And so began his second life. In Philly, Frito returned to painting with fierce devotion. After a work injury, he made the courageous decision to create full-time. The result? A body of work that is luminous, layered, and unflinchingly Haitian.
Frito doesn’t paint scenes — he paints memory. His landscapes are alive with the spirit of rural Haiti: agrarian rituals, market days, village life, and the metaphysical energies of vodou and ancestral presence. The detail is meticulous, the color vibrant. But look closely — there’s often something just under the surface. A shadow. A silence. A suggestion that all is not as serene as it seems. This is how Haitian artists have always told the truth — in code, in symbol, in color.
In 2010, I had the honor of curating many of Frito’s works in the exhibition "Haiti: A Tribute in Art" at the Delaware Art Museum, as part of their Outlooks Exhibition Series. The show was a powerful and timely reminder of Haiti’s resilience and creativity amidst crisis. It featured sequined vodou flags, ironwork, and paintings — and Frito’s luminous works stood at the center of it, telling stories of beauty and resistance that audiences could feel. That exhibit, in collaboration with the Wilmington Chapter of The Links, Inc., was one of my proudest moments as a curator — bringing the Haitian narrative to life through artists like Frito.
Today, Frito’s work has been exhibited at Moore College of Art, Philadelphia Art Alliance, City Hall, and featured in the Philadelphia Folklore Project’s Folk Arts of Social Change. He is a Pew Fellow in the Arts, and continues to paint full-time — with a practice rooted in memory, mysticism, and cultural pride.
At Vivant Art Gallery, we do more than show art — we tell stories. And Frito’s story is one of the most powerful I’ve had the privilege to preserve and share. His work reminds us that beauty can come from pain, and that memory is a form of resistance.
To own a Frito Bastien painting is to hold a piece of Haiti's spirit — resilient, radiant, and still rising.
— With admiration,
Florcy Morisset
Founder & Curator, Vivant Art Gallery
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