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=Didier William= Didier William is a mixed media painter originally from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. His work revolves around his childhood in Miami, and the influence Haitian culture has had on his life.

Early Life and Education
William was born in 1983 in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. He grew up in Miami, Florida, and received his BFA in painting from The Maryland Institute College of Art. William earned his MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University School of Art. He was an artist in residence at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation in Brooklyn, NY and has taught at Yale School of Art, Vassar College, Columbia University, and SUNY Purchase. In fall 2019, Didier was appointed Assistant Professor in Expanded Print at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, NJ. He is currently Associate Professor of Art and the Chair of the MFA Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Art
Didier William’s works are often called paintings because they are rectangular, mounted on the wall and in the size of traditional easel paintings. However, William's method is a mix of different two-dimensional mediums: using ink and acrylic paint, he carves directly into birch panels and arranges his own patterned prints on the surface. This approach, through appearance and illusion, suits the subject matter of the Haitian born artist. Drawn from the country’s history and folklore, as well as his experience of growing up in Miami, his works examine the idea of having to perform blackness or any kind of identity. The dark figures, built from hundreds of tiny, pixel-like eyes that are carved into the panels and return the viewer’s gaze, represent family members, Voodoo spirits in the Haitian Revolution. Didier started to represent black bodies in his paintings after the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager who was shot to death in 2012. The machetes signify the violent carnage as well as “tire machet,” the traditional Haitian martial art. William’s mystical work is highlighted by his titles, which include family expressions, proverbs and street slang, and are in untranslated Haitian Kreyòl.

Exhibits
His work has been exhibited at group shows and solo exhibitions in various places, including The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, Bronx Museum of Art, Frederick and Freiser Gallery, The Fraenkel Gallery, and Gallery Schuster in Berlin.

Solo Exhibitions
2010. Didier William at Galerie Schuster, Berlin Germany

2015. “Camouflage” Hap Gallery, Portland, Oregon

2017. “Swarm,” PRIZM Art Fair, Miami, Fl (2 person show with Nestor Armando Gil)

2017. “We Will Win,” Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York NY

Group Exhibitions
2005. “Disegno: Contemporary Drawing Exhibition,” MICA, Kansas City Art Institute, Princeton University, California College of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Art

2008. “Transformers”, Gateway/BlackBox Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art

2008. “New Akademiks”, Galerie Schuster, Berlin Germany

2009. “Summer Exhibition”, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY

2009. “The Open,” Deitch Projects Long Island City, New York, NY

2010. “Artquake”, Renaissance fin Art, New York, NY

2010. “Nice to meet you”, Sloan fine Art, New York, NY

2010. ”I’ll let you be in my dreams, if I can be in yours”, Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York, NY

2011. “Intersecting Cultures/Virtual Worlds”, Underground Gallery at The Betsy Hotel, Miami, FL

2011. Momenta Art Benefit, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, NY

2011. “Artquake”, Organized by Haiti Cultural Exchange, Brooklyn NY

2012. "Mark, Scrape, Wipe, Shape," Organized by Spaceshifter Projects and curated by Sangram Majumdar and Karla Wozniak, Brooklyn, NY

2014. “Improvised Showboat,” Brooklyn, NY

2014. “No more place”, Alferro Gallery, Newark, NJ

2015. “Bronx Calling,” The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, NY

2015. “The heart is a lonely hunter,” The Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2016. “Enlarged Fern” Moskowitz Bayse

2017. Pacific Standard Time, “Relational Undercurrents” Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA

2017. “Accordion Space,” Feigenbaum Center for Visual Arts, Union College, Schenectedy. NY

2017. “Passenger Pigeon Press Anniversary Show,” La Maison D’Art, NY

2017. “Fold Ten,” C.R Ettinger Studio, Philadelphia, PA

2018. “Aesthetics of Matter,” Volta Art Fair, NY

2018. “Isness,” Morgan Lehman Gallery, NY

2018. “Strange Looks,” Gildar Gallery, Denver, CO

Awards
2007. Morris Louis Award for Excellence in Painting

2006 & 7. Maryland Citation for Excellence in the Arts, Office of Senator Verna Jones

2007 & 8. MFA Student Fellowship, Yale University School of Art

2009. Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship for Painting

2009, 10, & 11. Hearst Foundation Grant Recipient

2012. Artist in Residence. Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program, Brooklyn NY

2014. Artist in the Market Place, The Bronx Museum of Art

2018. Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Art