Fridman Gallery is honored to present Laurena Finéus’s first solo exhibition, Cautionary Tales: A Symphony of Anger/Kòlè.

Balancing between abstraction and realism, Haitian-Canadian painter Laurena Finéus captures a liminal, evolving landscape as a metaphor for our enduring quest for freedom. Her layered surfaces, rendered in oils, ink, pigment, and acrylic on canvas, mimic the lush, rugged terrain and dense forests found in Maroon geographies, made treacherous by seasonal rains, flooding, and poor infrastructure. The intricate linework painted over abstract color fields creates depth of perception and resembles rhizomatic structures, symbolizing communal labor and regrowth of a landscape laid barren by earthquakes. 

Plants and elements referenced in Finéus’ work carry specific meanings: scattered magnolia seeds—once thought extinct in Haiti—embody fragility and endurance; fire symbolizes a painful yet regenerative process of liberation; pigeon pea and breadfruit seeds suggest fertility. Her practice explores displacement, environmental collapse, and transformation, inspired by Édouard Glissant’s Chaos-Monde—a world shaped by unpredictability and constant change—framing instability as both rupture and rebirth. 

Finéus’ new body of work unfolds in dialogue with Marie Vieux Chauvet’s Amour and the figure of La Femme Désordre (The Disorderly Woman), staging a quiet rebellion. Silenced yet seething, composed yet volatile, her anti-heroine interrogates the construction of the role of a “revolutionary hero”, often stripped of desire, or contradiction. La Femme Désordre channels the Maroon spirit: the fugitive who refuses containment. The feminine form, traditionally tasked with healing and nurturing, is allowed to transgress. Tenderness becomes revolt. In the words of Audre Lorde: “What you hear in my voice is fury, not suffering.” And yet, for Finéus, anger is a symphony and a prayer – not cacophony. Her work is ultimately about finding faith through fracture. The artist maps how we still, against all odds, believe in the possibility of redemption and return.