This muralist paints about power, liberation and love. See his work in Opa-locka
At age 6, Addonis Parker was gifted a drawing pad, two thick number two pencils and crayons. He let his imagination run wild — drawing Black superheros modeled after ones he saw in the Marvel and D.C. comic books.
He kept his drawings hidden from his peers, who were mostly white at that time. He was worried they would tease him for creating a universe of heroes.
He created a version of Captain America that looked like him. “I put a Black man in a flag with muscles. I wanted to see me in a place of power,” he told the Herald.
These days, his murals adorn walls and buildings all over Miami, including the “Thunder and Lightning” mural on the side of the OneUnited Bank Building in Liberty City, where his studio is located.
His most recent work is an exhibit at the The ARC in Opa-locka titled Still We Rise: The Art of Addonis Parker, where he celebrates Black culture through large-scale murals. The theme borrows from the famous Maya Angelou poem, “And Still I Rise.” The exhibit, which runs through August 30, encompasses themes of liberation, power, freedom, love and prophecy, he said.
One mural, “My Soul is An Anchor,” features a Black man draped in an American flag underwater with a chain around his neck. Another one, titled “The Rise and Fall of Mankind,” features a broken Proud Boy statue with a blue-toned Black man wearing an Uncle Sam hat and a chess piece necklace. That piece, Parker said, is meant to symbolize the constraints imposed on Black men. “He’s a king, but he’s restricted by the government,” Parker said.
‘You’ve got something special’
Born in Avon Park, Fla., Parker was raised in Ashtabula, Ohio, about 60 miles from Cleveland, where he was a shy little boy immersed in his art world.
At 12, Parker and his family moved to Central Florida where he faced bullying for his quiet disposition. “If the teacher asked me to do something on the board, I would almost collapse,” he said. But art was a refuge. “I could run to art and create my own worlds where I was brave.”
To grow out of his shyness, he took up sports to meet people and make friends, but art remained his comfort, and in many ways kept him fed. He told of a time when he would do fellow classmates’ assignments in exchange for food. It would earn him an F in art during his freshman year. “[The teacher] found out because the work was looking similar,” he said with a chuckle. Still, she encouraged him to lean into his gifts and pursue it full time, something Parker said he hadn’t been personally interested in.
But that all changed when he left Brevard County.
In 1991, Parker moved to Georgia where he eventually landing at Morris Brown College, which he credits for helping him explore and understand Black history and his own Blackness.
While enrolled at Morris Brown College, Parker said he took classes from the late renowned artist Louis Delsarte, who eventually became a mentor. It was Delsarte who told Parker he had raw talent after looking at his sketchbook and encouraged him to pursue art professionally.
“He said, ‘Son, I can’t teach you anything but technique. You’ve got something special,’” Parker recalled, crediting his faith for getting him far.. “I used to say I was self-taught, but really God-taught me.”
Parker left Morris Brown before completing a degree in part to take care of his mother who was sick, but he would lay the foundation for a career in art and art education when he became a counselor and eventual program director of the Butler Street YMCA in Atlanta, where he taught children art.
When he arrived in South Florida in 2002, he was recruited to work at Miami nonprofit Art for Learning. That’s where he met executive director Sheila Womble, who said Parker had a way of showing the youth how art was essential to them beyond the classroom.
“What stood out about Adonis was his passion and heart to communicate with kids and to teach them not just about the techniques and the how-tos, but to really also embed life lessons,” she said.
It’s that passion that led him to create his nonprofit organization Art Forever Miami, Inc, where he teaches kids about art while incorporating Black history.
“I wanted them to see themselves in art, but also see themselves in the future,” he said.
If you go:
What: Still We Rise: The Art of Addonis Parker
When: Now through Aug. 30
Where: The ARC in Opa-locka, 675 Alib Baba Way
Info: https://tennorthgroup.webflow.io/post/still-we-rise-art-of-addonis-parker
This story was originally published June 19, 2025 at 10:55 AM.
