Jonathan Mayers

Jonathan radbwa faroush Mayers is a Louisiana Creole artist born and raised in Istrouma, or Baton-Rouj (Baton Rouge), Louisiana. His passion for reconnecting with his heritage community and reclaiming his family’s languages, Kouri-Vini (the endangered Creole language of Louisiana) and Louisiana French—which were lost two generations earlier due to Americanization—led Mayers to do more linguistic and cultural research. Mayers paints images of mythological beasts and monsters in familiar, often local, landscapes, and incorporates that same physical landscape into his workevoke themes such as environmentalism, Creolism, and postcolonialism. He infuses his workevoke themes such as environmentalism, Creolism, and postcolonialism. He infuses his works with workwith Latannyèrizm (Latanièrisme) which brings together visual arts, language, and territory.

Mayers is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Louisiana State University (2007) and his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Orleans (2011). He has been an artist-in-residence at Centre SAGAMIE (Alma, QC), Est-Nord-Est (Quebec City), and A Studio in the Woods (New Orleans). Mayers, Poet Laureate of Baton Rouge 2021-2023, is co-editor of Févi (2022), and his work can be found in : Nous sommes tous des astronautes : scénarios et prototypes pour des temps extrêmes (2024), Latær Lèv (2023), Contes merveilleux : Louisiane, 2023, Folklore Figures of French and Creole Louisiana (2021), Ancrages No 30. Traces, and Feux Follets. His most recent projects as an exhibition curator were Kont Kréyol-yé (2025) and Mitoloji Latannyèr | Mythologies louisianaises (2023). He is currently a doctoral student in Francophone studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.