Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Didier William moved to Miami at age six and called North Miami home. His early creativity led him to Downtown Miami’s New World School of the Arts before moving to Baltimore to study painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and to Connecticut to complete a master’s degree at Yale University. William taught in Philadelphia and is now assistant professor at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. This immense résumé is not only a testament to William’s talent, but an indication of adaptability and the abil­ity to transcend fixed definitions of belonging and home. It is this same lib­eration from space that underscores the state of the amorphous figures that fill William’s paintings, prints and sculptures, which exist in a present imaginary and as extensions of William’s identity. As such, a discourse of Black queer life in America permeated with Floridian influence underpins William’s first museum solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, currently on view and running through April 16, 2023.

‘Didier was able to make it in a system that is entrenched in cruel paradigms of exploitation for many Haitians. He is at the same time a Haitian artist and a contemporary painter,’ shares renowned artist Edouard Duval-Carrié. The multi-layers within William’s artworks reflect the complexities of his Haitian American upbringing in Miami, a city he describes as ‘a Latin American corri­dor influential in shaping the inherent and maybe even necessary untidiness of representation, especially when talking about the histories of Black and brown people.’ Within this untidiness, William found freedom. Inspired by printmak­ing techniques, abstract silhouettes float timelessly across the surface, elusive yet powerfully personal. ‘We don’t usually see artists willing to discuss their fam­ily struggles, their coming-out story, while delving deeply into broader political realities of Black life and the threat of the white or state gaze on Black bodies, Black performativity, the stakes of looking, or the increasing inability of the Black body to provide evidence of its destruction,’ explains Dr. Erica Moiah James, guest curator of William’s exhibition. On closer inspection, William’s figures are constructed from multiple cutout eyes staring back to con­sume the viewer as much as they are being consumed.

‘Faceless and yet all-seeing, this repeating eye motif has become highly recognizable to Didier’s work, materializing the process of gazing and bearing witness that lies at the heart of his practice – insisting on a “circuit” between the body and its observer,’ explains the James Fuentes gallery team. In 2019, William exhibited ‘Broken Skies: Vertières’, a wallpaper, etching, and three monumental carved paintings in James Fuentes’s Nova booth at Art Basel Miami Beach. Vertières was the last major Haitian Revolution battle in Haiti’s independence from France (arguably still in process). William’s powerful figures stare back demanding consideration and colonial introspection.

William is firmly established academically and institutionally, so it’s timely that ‘Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè (We Leave It All Behind)’ opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA) in tandem with a documentary film spearheaded by the University of Miami, MOCA and Miami filmmaker Marlon Johnson. The exhibition brings together multimedia works between the past five and 10 years yet to be in dialogue at this scale. ‘“Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè” features over 40 paintings and prints, works on paper and three new artist books. We are also so proud to have commissioned William’s first monumental sculpture,’ describes Chana Budgazad Sheldon, executive director of MOCA North Miami.

The exhibition serves as a micro-survey within the context of William’s upbringing and personal chronicle. The Just Us Three woodcarving suggests a self-portrait of William, his husband, and their daughter, a family gazing over an enigmatic vista. The painting Mosaic Pool, Miami is a nostalgic social poolside encounter compiled of eyes unapologetically returning the gaze. ‘Situating the work in North Miami at this moment allows viewers the benefit of comparison between my paintings, and the lived realities of Haitians in Miami in real time, and the inherent gap in between,’ shares William. 

Organizations such as the Little Haiti Cultural Center and Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance were established after William left Miami to study and now provide a cultural hub for Afro Caribbean cultural dialogue. His success serves as an affirmation for the immigrant creative community. ‘Miami should claim Didier William not only as a wonderful artist but as an educator. Didier is a real success story,’ concludes Duval-Carrié.

So, is Haiti or Miami or Philadelphia home? William may long for these places, but it is too simplistic to deduce home as a place. William closes, ‘Since Miami has the largest Haitian community outside of Haiti, it’s sort of a Haitian diaspora mecca, so this exhibition could be seen as a homecoming. But my relationship to home is a complicated network of intersecting and overlapping emotions. I sometimes prefer to think of this as a reintroduction rather than a homecoming.’ It seems where William and his art is present, is home.

This article was originally commissioned for the Art Basel Miami Beach magazine 2022.

‘Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè’ is on view at MOCA, North Miami, through April 16, 2023.

Captions for full-bleed images: 1. Detail of Didier William, Just Us Three, 2021. Collection of Jonathan Sobel and Marcia Dunn. A dark filter was applied over this image for readability. 2. Didier William's work in the James Fuentes Nova Booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2019. Courtesy James Fuentes and the artist.