Didier Williams

Didier William (b. 1983, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Haitian-American artist whose interdisciplinary practice explores diasporic identity, memory, and belonging. William relocated with his family to Miami at the age of six, an experience that continues to inform his work. He earned a B.F.A. in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale University School of Art.

Working across painting, printmaking, carving, and collage, William creates richly layered compositions that merge figuration and abstraction. His work draws from Haitian history, Kreyòl language, mythology, and Voudou symbolism to examine constructions of Blackness, migration, and the dynamics of the gaze. A recurring motif throughout his work is the presence of carved eyes that challenge traditional relationships between viewer and subject, transforming looking into an active exchange.

William’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami; the Bronx Museum of the Arts; the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach; the Carnegie Museum; and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. William has taught at institutions including Yale School of Art, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently Associate Professor of Expanded Print at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2018), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2020), a Pew Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (2021), and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant (2023).