The Haiti-born artist's landscapes exude life and potent bodies that return the viewer's gaze. A solo show gathers 14 new paintings.
Each time I’ve run into William’s paintings, I’ve been floored — not only by the ways he uses imagery but also by the careful crafting of his pieces. The exhibition at James Fuentes, which inaugurated the New York-based gallerist’s L.A. space early last month and is now in its final days, provides an opportunity to soak up a number of his works in a single setting on the West Coast.The solo show gathers 14 new paintings that delve into the otherworldly as well as the biographical.
A large vertical canvas titled “Plonje ,” made this year, shows three faceless figures plunging into a watery deep. It evokes the ways in which the seas around Haiti have served as a graveyard to Africans and their descendants, beginning with the Middle Passage and continuing through the perilous journeys Haitians still make to Florida today. But these supernatural eye-covered bodies slip through a body of water that also has eyes. The scene evokes death, but there is life as well.
Another canvas, “I Wanted Her to Kill Him, I Know Why She Didn’t,” also from 2023, is more personal. It was inspired by the artist’s mother, a restaurant worker who contended with an abusive boss. It shows a figure blasting another with rays of light inside an abstracted room. The walls are covered in a repeating pattern ofsymbols, the ritual designs employed in Haitian Vodou. In this case, a heart pattern evoking Erzulie Dantor, a protective maternal spirit.
An installation view of Didier William’s show at James Fuentes. At right is a canvas inspired by his mother, “I Wanted Her to Kill Him, I Know Why She Didn’t,” 2023. From a distance, the paintings swirl and seethe with motion and bright splashes of color. Particularly memorable is a large horizontal piece that was inspired by an episode from William’s childhood, when he was hit by a car after chasing his dog into a busy street. “My Father’s Nightmares: 40mph Hit” shows a stand-in for the artist catapulted into the air by the force of the impact; in the distance, his father waves his arms helplessly.
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