Franck De Las Mercedes

Franck de las Mercedes is a Nicaraguan-born interdisciplinary artist and poet living and working in New York City. His multifaceted body of work and public art projects aim to explore the challenges and commonalities in understanding, articulating, and embracing the harsh and usually contradictory realities of contemporary life.
Influenced by abstract expressionism, pop art, rock carvings, and Nicaraguan primitivism, Franck has pioneered a style he defines as “Popstract Expressionism.” De las Mercedes frequently paints with both his dominant and non-dominant hand, producing compositions that are rich in vivid hues, angular linework, and raw textures.
The artist references childhood memories, family dynamics, and current events often incorporating handwriting to evoke a familiar intimacy with the subjects and story.
De las Mercedes gained international acclaim for his conceptual art project, "The Priority Boxes," sometimes referred to as "Peace Boxes." Created as an effort to promote peace through participatory postal art, the artist sent painted empty boxes labeled “Contains Peace” to recipients all over the world, for free.
In February of 2014, a massive fire ripped through FdlM's home and art studio destroying all of the artist's...

Self-taught

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Uptown Arquetipico, Art on the Ave Creative Space, Inwood, NY
2023 Born in Nicaragua/Made in the USA, NYLAAT/PTM Contemporary, Governors Island, NY
2022 Essentialisms & Self-discovery, Boricua College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
2021 A New Materialist Myth for His Being, The CAMP Gallery, Westport, CT
2019 Color Speaks Truth, One River Gallery, Larchmont, NY
Bronx Studies, Studio 13/BxArts Factory, Bronx, NY
2018 Women from Blot, The Directed Art Modern, Miami, FL
2009 Imagen, UC Gallery at City Hall, Union City, NJ
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Life is a Circus, AHA Underground / Jim Kemper Fine Art, NY
Labor and Love, Supreme Courthouse of New York, NY
2024 Glow, William V. Musto Cultural Center, Union City, NJ
2023 Connections, Art on the Ave NYC, Inwood, NY
Hispanic Heritage in the Heights, NoMAA Gallery 4140, New York, NY
The Gram Uptown: Virtual/Visceral, NoMAA Gallery 4140, New York, NY
Sweet Complications, AHA Fine Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Something to Declare, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainsville, GA
Creating Home: immigrant perspectives, NoMAA Gallery 4140, New York, NY
Something to Declare, Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA
2021 Viva La Memento Mori: A reminder of life &a...