What does it mean to rise from the ashes—literally—and turn tragedy into vibrant, thought-provoking art? In this episode, we sit down with Franck De Las Mercedes, a Nicaraguan-born, New York-based visual artist whose work blends abstract expressionism, digital collage, street photography, and cultural heritage into powerful, multi-layered pieces. Franck opens up about the devastating fire that destroyed everything he owned and how that loss inspired his latest series, “Contil

Photo courtesy of Nicky Conti "Contil" is the latest series of paintings that combine digital images, photography, language, and painting. 10 years after the fire, I finally started to reopen the digital archive of what I had documented, and began experimenting by constructing digital composite of recovered images, like journal pages, and photographs, effacing and enhancing the images by painting on top of the printed material. Contil is a word used in Nicaraguan to describ

Nicaraguan-born artist and poet Franck de las Mercedes has redefined contemporary art through his signature "Popstract Expressionism"—a fusion of abstract expressionism, pop art, and primal Nicaraguan influences. His compositions explode with vivid colors, angular linework, and layered textures, often reflecting childhood memories, familial themes, and socio-political commentary. Now based in Washington Heights, his latest collection of Popstract portraits is on view at AOTA