Piñata-based sculptor, Roberto Benavidez is a self described “Half-breed, South Texan, queer, figurative sculptor” specializing in the piñata form; playing on themes of race, sexuality, art, sin, humor, ephemerality and beauty. Born in 1973, in Beeville, TX, he now lives and works in Los Angeles. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Museum of International Folk Art, LA Metro, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among others.

His sculptures have been featured in national, international and on-line publications including American Craft Magazine, ARTnews, Artsy, Atlas Obscura, Audubon Magazine, The Guardian, hifructose.com, Hyperallergic, LUXE Interiors + Design, Politiken, The New York Times and This Is Colossal. Most recently he was featured in the New York Times Series “The Art of Craft.” Benavidez has shown in group and solo exhibitions, including at the AD&A Museum at UCSB, Craft In America, Mingei International Museum, Palo Alto Art Center, Self Help Graphics, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum and Riverside Art Museum; his work was included in the 2024 Homo Faber Biennial in Venice, Italy he was included in the 2025 Cheongju Craft Biennale in Cheongju, South Korea. Metro commissioned him to contribute to the “Through the Eyes of Artists” poster series (2019); his Bosch fruit fascinators are featured in the finale of The Interview with the Vampire series on AMC+. He is also featured in the “Play” episode of the Craft In America PBS series, and is the subject of the 2024 documentary short “Piñatas of Earthly Delights” directed by Tom Maroney.

M. Florine Démosthène’s works portray otherworldly characteristics through multi-media and collage. Démosthène was born in the United States and raised between Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and New York.She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and her Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College, City University of New York. Démosthène has exhibited widely in solo and selected exhibitions across the United States, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Africa. Recent solo exhibitions include What the Body Carries at the Frist Art Museum, Mastering the Dream at the SCAD Museum of Art, and In the Realm of Love at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery. Her honors include a Caribbean Cultural Institute-Perez Art Museum Miami Artist Fellowship, NYFA Artist Fellowship, an Oklahoma Visual Arts Council Grant, a Project Fellowship with Future Histories Studio at Stony Brook University, the Wachtmeister Award, the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, an Arts Moves Africa Grant, the Black Star Award, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. She has participated in artist residencies throughout the US, the Caribbean, the UK, Slovakia, Ghana, and Tanzania.

Her work is held in public and private collections worldwide, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Africa First Collection, the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Lowe Museum of Art, the Hessel Museum of Art, and the PFF Collection of African American Art.

Anindita Duttta is an Indian-born sculptor, installation, and performance artist who transforms resilience into a radical visual language. Through hyper-intense sculptural expressions, she deconstructs the complex terrains of female identity—mapping the intricate landscapes of pain, pleasure, vulnerability, and strength. Her work has been exhibited both in the US and internationally, including at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan; Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology in Beijing, China; and CAMAC in Marney-sur-Seine, France, among others. She has received numerous prestigious grants and fellowships, such as the 2022 TOY Fellow and the 2022 NXTHVN Fellowship in New Haven, USA, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Artist Residency Grant in Japan (2010), the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2008), a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2005), and the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Fellowship (2005).

Her works are part of several esteemed collections, including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art in Beijing, China, the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum, the Francis J. Greenburger Collection, the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, the Karen and Robert Duncan Collection, and the Marc and Kathy LeBaron Collection.

Born in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas Mexico (1992) and based between Mexico and Switzerland, Diego Moreno is a visual artist, photographer, and narrative storyteller. His work approaches photography as the main tool to create new realities and intertwines with other disciplines such as text, drawing, painting. He explores themes of identity such as religion, violence, affection and the complexity of family and cultural ties in his context. He considers photography as a possibility of narrative control, which is why he has specialized mostly in the creation of photobooks.

He has been named as one of the most influential young photographers in the world by The British Journal Of Photography UK; Creative Review UK and FOAM MAGAZINE Netherlands. He has received various awards around the world, such as: the POY LATAM Latin American Photography Award in three categories in 2025 and 2019 in Quito, Ecuador; the UNSTUCK 2022 Award in Toronto, Canada, awarded by the Magenta Foundation; FOAM TALENT 2022 in Amsterdam; iPhone Photography Awards 2021 in New York; LensCulture Art Awards 2021 in Amsterdam; Cheerz Photo Festival 2019 in Paris, France; International Image Award 2019 in Mexico; LensCulture Emerging Talent Award 2018 in Amsterdam; and the Acquisition Award at the 10th Puebla de los Ángeles Biennial 2015 in Mexico. 

Larissa De Jesús Negrón (b. Puerto Rico, 1994) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, installation, and visual storytelling. Her practice constructs surreal landscapes that weave memory, emotional inquiry, and embodied experience. Water functions as a central metaphor for psychological movement and introspection, while the female body operates as both archive and agent, grounding her work in themes of vulnerability, femininity, and inner transformation.e.

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Larissa resided in various municipalities including Guaynabo, Trujillo Alto, and Caguas. Larissa pursued her secondary education at Central High, a prestigious art-focused institution in Puerto Rico, culminating in her graduation with the school's highest accolade. Subsequently, she sought to expand her artistic horizons at The School of Plastic Arts in Old San Juan, specializing in Drawing and Painting. Transitioning to Hunter College in New York City, Larissa earned her BFA degree with distinction. Recently, Larissa has moved back to Puerto Rico where she continues to hone her craft and make significant contributions to the art world.

Pedro Troncoso (b.1996, Dominican Republic) is a New York–based artist whose work layers erased narratives into dreamlike spaces where blurred identities confront colonial impact. In the fragile space between ancestry and autonomy, his work asks: how much of our heritage are we willing to negotiate or rebuild? He earned his BFA in Illustration at Parsons School of Design after formative studies at Altos de Chavón, La Escuela de Diseño (DR), and holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the New York Academy of Art. His work has been shown at the 29th and 31st Dominican Biennials, NADA, Art Central Hong Kong, ComplexCon, and the AXA Art Prize, with additional exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, and Beijing. His practice has been profiled in Blanc Magazine, Whitewall, Artlyst, New American Paintings, among others.

For the Browns, the Queers, and the Witches. Friday exists to enable the discovery of rising creative voices from the Global South, curating art, objects, and editions from the Middle East, South Asia, Latin America, and beyond.

Our space blends an art gallery with a cultural salon series to create a seasonal platform anchored in a rotating theme, with the art, object, and programming curation bound together in a shared spirit. From Pakistani minimalism, to the surrealist visions of feminist Dubai photographers, to queer gothic brujas in Mexico, we peel back old divides to celebrate the cultural voices of tomorrow. Our name (جمعة) comes from the Middle East tradition of honoring Friday as a time of connection, presence and reflection in community. Art is our shared table. May we dine on delight.
 

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